Third Grade Stretches Vocabulary with Study of “Where the Mountain Meets the Moon”

By Assistant Head of School for Academics David Long

Galloway teachers in all levels use a wide range of methods to engage their students to develop skills and deepen their learning. Our third grade teaching team Liz Rathore, Anne Kostensky, and Hillary Wilson used an interdisciplinary approach to their unit on the novel Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, a Newberry Medal Award-winning novel that explores the power of fairy tales in ancient China. 

Since the novel is above the students' reading level, the teachers read and discussed it as a class, rather than individually. This intentional approach encourages students to stretch their skill development and vocabulary. As they listened, students were asked to make inferences, predictions, and tap into their prior knowledge from previous events in the book and apply it to the story. 

The students were asked to apply their learning by writing a book review and by producing a piece of art. Serving as literary critics, third graders wrote a critique that outlined their opinion of the book while also making a connection to a book that they had already read. The students then tapped into their inner artists and used their creative minds to visually represent a theme, character, or scene from the novel. Students’ final projects included sculptures, dioramas, and paintings. As a culminating activity, parents were invited to campus to see the students’ creations and ask them questions about their projects.