About this Story:
A lovely Chinese fable about a kitten who goes fishing with her mom. She does not catch any fish at first because she was absent-minded. What children can learn from this story is that success always comes from staying focused.
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:
This is a Chinese traditional morale story. Based on the comparison between the Chinese and American rod, students are required to identify the fishing culture of two countries.
Connections (Subject Area):
Science: Food chains, e.g. cat eats fish, fish eats little shrimp, etc.
Social studies: Family cultures in different countries, how one’s attitude influences his or her work
Comparisons:
Students are asked to compare the different results of the two scenarios in the story. The first scenario is that the kitten missed the fish because he went to catch the butterfly and did not focus on fishing, The second scenario is that the little kitten finally caught the fish because he ignored the dragonfly and totally focused on fishing. Students are encouraged to think why there are two completely different results of the scenarios and then they would be able to learn the morale.
Community:
Little kitten goes fishing with his mom. Students will be asked to tell what they usually do with their mother/parents in their own countries.
Communication:
Interpretive Tasks: To demonstrate their understanding of the story, students are required to complete the sentences and pictures matching tasks. During the song, students will sing with the teacher first and then point out the right pictures with the script. They also need to identify the sequences of several pictures from the stories.
Interpersonal Task: Students form groups of three or four to complete the tasks of sentences and picture matching. They will work as a team to figure out the correct answer. They will also hold the group discussion about topics like what do they usually do with their parents in their spare time.
Presentational Task: At the end of the lesson, students will form groups to complete the role-play task.
Language Functions & Forms:
Vocabulary: Run, sit, catch, butterfly, dragonfly, fish, worm, seaweed, before, after
Grammatical Structures: – “What is this?” – “This is …”;… eat…; … like to eat…; somebody has/doesn’t have something.
Character & Word Study:
Culminating Assessment:
Students will be working with groups to do a role play. Each student will read the story of his or her picture or tell about the picture while other students who have the same pictures need to act it out.