About this Story:
This story is about a mantis stalking a cicada reminds people to watch out what’s behind them. A mantis is stalking a cicada, but it doesn’t know there is an oriole behind him. This proverb is used to describe people who pursue immediate gains while neglecting greater danger behind.
Download the story in PDF version here to print for classroom or home use.
Download the narrated iBook here for use on iPad and other electronic devices.
Culture:
Students will be able to understand the concept of emperor and minister in different countries, animals in China and their symbolic or cultural meaning, and the Chinese idiom Always Watch Your back.
Connections (Subject Area):
Math: Measurement, food pyramid, multiplication, fraction and word problem
Social Studies: Culture, historical wars, hierarchy structure, politics, environment protection, the relationship between human and nature
Science: Food chain, animals, habitat, ecosystem, animal protection, and geography
Language Arts: Parallel story, drama, literature, and Venn Diagram
Comparisons:
Community:
Communication:
Students will be able to discuss the meaning and cultural background of the idiom “Always Watch Your Back”.
Students will be able to write a parallel story using the language they learned from this unit.
Language Functions & Forms:
Grammatical Structures: A 吃 B. (A eats B.), B会被A吃掉吗？(Is B eaten by A?), 量词(measure words), 在…后面(be behind), 准备…(prepare to do something), 我采访了…,他/她（没）听说过(I interviewed…, he/she has (not) heard of…)
Vocabulary: 皇帝，大臣，打仗，螳螂，蝉，黄雀，蛇，老鹰，食物链，成语，西汉，总统，准备，采访，吞，烦，吃惊，乘，饱
Character & Word Study:
Examine the work networks using the “insect” radical/虫字旁：螳螂，蝉
Culminating Assessment:
Interpretive Task: Students read a series of pictures and answer questions. The pictures together tell a story, which has similar concepts as in the unit story. In order to understand the pictures, students need to be familiar with concepts, such as food chain and eco-system balance, as well as unit vocabulary.
Interpersonal Task: Students work in pairs to complete story plots by the different sentences they have. Students need to understand the big idea of the story and the portion of the plot they have, then they complete the whole story by orally communicating with their parents.
Presentational task: Students make a poster about the story and their understanding of the importance of keeping a food chain balanced. Relative vocabulary, grammar, and concepts are needed in order to complete this task.