The Story About Ping

 

The Story About Ping

Written by Marjorie Flack

Illustrated by Kurt Wiese

Published in 1933

Grade Level: 2nd-4th grade

  

Synopsis: Ping, the title character in The Story About Ping, is a duck living on the Yangtze River in China.  Each morning Ping leaves the riverboat with his family to swim and explore along the river.  Each night Ping and is family, which is made up of his parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and forty-two cousins, are supposed to return to the riverboat.  The duck that is the last one on the riverboat gets a spanking.  Ping never likes to be last so one evening he hides all night in the tall grasses in the river.  When the sun rises Ping sees that the riverboat is nowhere in sight, but he does see a little boy who has fallen off a houseboat.  The boy clings to Ping until the boy's father school them out of the water.  Ping is put in a cage to hold him until he is to be cooked for dinner.  Before that can happen, the boy frees Ping who eventually finds his family and home again. 

Theme/Skill: The before, during, and after reading activities surrounding this children's story all relate to similarities in people's (or ducks) feelings.  The theme of this lesson should be unity; no matter the appearance, location, culture, age, or gender of a person we all have similar hopes and fears.  Discussion and lessons about the Chinese culture and Ping's feelings will help students understand that appearance should not dictate attitude. 

Pre-reading activity: Have students write for five minutes about how they would feel if they got lost or separated from their family.  Students may write based on their own experiences or predict how they would feel.  The teacher will share a time when they were lost or separated in order to ignite the discussion.  This sort of modeling will also express to the students that the teacher is not just a teacher, but a person as well.  Students will share their feelings and experiences and the teacher will inform students that they should notice how Ping, the main character, feels when a similar situation occurs in his life.  This will give students a purpose and something to look for as they read and/or listen. The teacher could also make a KWL chart about Chinese culture based on responses from students. 

Post-reading activity: The teacher could introduce elements of the Chinese culture to students initiated by a discussion of the appearances of the humans in the story (clothing, physical characteristics).  Students can point out the similarities and differences between the people in the book and themselves.  The teacher could also show students where China and the Yangtze River are on the map.  The teacher might ask students to identify what kinds of animals live in a river and what people do in a river.  During these discussions, the teacher should write student responses down on large chart paper so students can see their responses and reference them later.  A Webquest could be created for students to further research China, culture, and facts about the Yangtze River.   

Assessment: Students will be graded, in part, on their participation.  Participation is, to an extent, a good indicator of what students know and how they are interpreting the topic at hand.  This only works if the students are participating.  Students could also be assessed on how well they work with a partner on the Webquest, cooperating and sharing responsibilities as they fill out the worksheet about China, its culture, and facts about the Yangtze River.

Reflection: Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese created a wonderful story in The Story About Ping.  The colors in the illustrations are calming and inviting with the use of cool colors of blues and grays.  Readers can relate to Ping because every person has been at the back of the line at some point in their life; every person has felt left out or not good enough.  So no matter a person's age, I am confident when I say that any reader will enjoy reading or listening to The Story About Ping.