Resources for Lesson Plans on Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival

What is the Mid-Autumn Festival (MAF)? How and why is it celebrated? What else can we learn about it?

Here are a compiled list of resources. I have reviewed hundreds of websites, books and videos before coming up with this list.

Target age group: 3-6 years old

Song (music and movement, and some counting/ math):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ Tweenies Go Round the Moon. There're lyrics and the song there.
Click on tweenies then click on songs or just input the song title in the search.

Books (Math/ Shapes, poetry, craft, legends, morals):

1. "Round is a Mooncake: A book of shapes." by Roseanne Thong and Grace Lin. You can get it from Amazon.com. : introduces shapes and math.

Excerpt: "Round is a mooncake, Round is the moon, Round are the lanterns, outside my room. Round is a pebble, that I found. A bowl of goldfish, that makes no sound."

2. "Rabbit Mooncakes" by Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer : more for older children, and is about how the Vietnamese celebrate this same festival.

3. "Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats: A Treasury of Chinese Holiday Tales, Activities & Recipes" by Nina Simonds (Author), Leslie Swartz (Author), Boston The Children's Museum (Author), Meilo So (Illustrator): the part on mooncakes tells kids how you can put different fillings into mooncakes, and talks about the full moon too.

4. "The Moon Lady" by Amy Tan (Author), Gretchen Schields (Illustrator): This book has a famour author... :-) I read her Joy Luck Club before. It doesn't really relate to MAF actually, but it is a good read. Teaches kids not to be whiny, to slow down, not always be so restless/ impatient, to be careful what you wish for.. The reference to Moon Festival is there, and it does talk about preparations for the festival.

5. "Moon Festival" by Ching Yeung Russell (Author), Christopher Zhong-Yuan Zhang (Illustrator): supposed to be for ages 4-8. I haven't read this, not sure if it's good, but it is relevant.