Language Arts Lesson Plans

Poetry: Traditional Chinese Nursery Rhymes

Discussing Chinese Folk and Fairy Tales

Learning to Give has some lessons that look great. They can be adapted for older or younger students as necessary.

1. The Generosity of Spirit Folktale Unit for grades 9 – 12 contains 3 Chinese tales. You can use individual lessons or the whole unit. Lesson 4: Gifts of all Sizes includes a discussion of “The Silk Brocade”. Lesson 5: Chinese Folk Tales uses Lord of the Cranes and Lo-Sun, The Blind Boy. Lesson 7 on Buddhist Folktales may also be of interest, although the tales selected seem to be from only India and Tibet.

2. Good Will: Three Chinese Stories, for K – 2nd grade uses Margaret Mahy’s The Seven Chinese Brothers. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1990. ISBN: 0590420577 in Lesson 1: Helping Others, and Ying Chang Compestine’s Runaway Rice Cake (The). New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001. ISBN: 0689829728 in Lesson 2: Giving Generously. Lesson 3: Seems Like A Million Bucks uses a Chinese New Year book, Karen Chim’s Sam and the Lucky Money. New York: Lee and Low Books Inc., 1997. ISBN: 1880000539.

3. Lesson 4 of Philanthropic Literature (for K – 2nd grade) is onChinese Proverb on Honesty.

4. Lesson 6: Asian Fusion of the Around the World Unit (for grades 6-8) discusses philanthropy in China and Japan.

See more lesson plan ideas.