Make connections with the following lesson plan ideas for Ming Lo Moves the Mountain .

Social Studies

Land and Water Around the World
Have students help you make a bulletin-board display showing the land and water forms of either the places from which the students themselves recently moved or the places from which their families came. Students can base their pictures on memories, photographs, or interviews they conduct with family members. Write labels to identify the students and — as closely as possible — the names of the places they show in their pictures. Invite students to take turns telling about these places on the basis of their own memories or the recollections of their families. If possible, use a topographical map of the country or of continents to pinpoint the locations as students discuss the places. Encourage the classroom audience to tell why they would like to visit the places their classmates describe. Discuss how the land forms and bodies of water contrast and compare with the ones in your community.

Literature

Solving Problems
Review what Ming Lo's problem was and how the problem was solved. Discuss the problems of characters in other stories the students have recently read. List the characters and their problems on a Solving Problems chart.

Complete the Solutions column of the chart by asking students to take turns playing the part of the Wise Man in Ming Lo Moves the Mountain and telling the character how to solve his or her problem.

To emphasize the role that the problem plays in a good story, ask students if they can think of a story that does not have a problem in it.

Creative Writing:

More Problems for Ming Lo
Students can work in small groups to write and illustrate their own stories about Ming Lo. Ask groups to imagine that Ming Lo lives in one of these locations:

• the seashore
• a forest
• a desert
• on a mountain top

Their stories can tell:

• why he and his wife do not like the place, and
• how they solve their problem.

Invite groups to read and show their finished stories to the class or to act them out. Put the stories in a folder on a reading table for students to look at and discuss independently.

Movement and Dance:

Steps and Splashes
Call on a volunteer to choose from a chalkboard list of land forms and bodies of water, and — without revealing the choice — pantomime the way Ming Lo would move through a across this area. The volunteer can select three or four classmates to follow the leader, then ask them or other classmates to tell where their pantomime trip has taken them. What movement clues did the audience or followers use to make their guess?

Math:

Measuring Heights and Depths
Ask student-partners to use the relief key on a topographical map to figure out how shades of colors are used to show more precisely the different altitudes of land and depth of water. Have partners explain to classmates what colors might be used to show Ming lo's mountain and the place where his house is.