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 Chapter 2: An Unexpected Problem and The
Story of the Chinese Zodiac
This chapter introduces students to a concrete example of
bullying someone just because he or she is different.
Talking Points
1. Here is a perfect jumping off point to introduce the idea of
the United States of America as a nation of “differences” because it
is a nation of immigrants. There are even theories that Native
Americans first came here from somewhere else – Asia, in fact!
2. Talk about dragons. The dragon is a powerful divine creature in
Chinese mythology. There are some major differences between dragons
of the East and dragons of the West:
- Chinese dragons don’t breathe fire. In fact, they are most
associated with water in the form of rain.
- Chinese dragons are not wicked: they bring good luck like
rain for farmers’ fields and they are good.
- Chinese dragons don’t fly.
- Chinese dragons were the symbol of the emperor: the number
of toes on a Chinese dragon indicates the level of its nobility.
Relate this fact back to the name of Jimmy’s family’s
restaurant, the Imperial Dragon.
Activities
1. Have students research their own family history – when did their
ancestors come to America? After the students have had time to
research their roots, hang a map of the world on the wall and
prepare an index card for each child. Using yarn or colored string
and pushpins, show the country each child’s family originally came
from. To extend this lesson, hold a world food day. You can ask each
student and his/her family to prepare a food from their ancestral
homeland.
2. Create a comparison chart about dragons comparing the West’s
iconic dragon with that of East Asia.
3. The legend of the animals of the Chinese Zodiac is the fact
chapter here and you’ll need the Chinese characters you worked on
for Chapter 1 in order to read it. Divide your class into two teams.
Read the story aloud to your students stopping at each character and
allowing one team to call out the name of the animal in English. If
the team can’t do it, the chance goes to the other team. Bonus
points can be awarded for identifying the characters in Chinese,
too.
Websites to Extend Your Knowledge about…
…Chinese
dragons
…
dragon puppets
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