BIG MOONCAKE FOR LITTLE STAR: Activities

Best Users:  Librarians, Booksellers, Classroom Teachers, Families, Autumn Moon Festivals
Best Audience: Children Grades 00-02
 

EXPLORE & DOWNLOAD THE ACTIVITIES

In Grace Lin’s A Big Mooncake for Little Star (Little, Brown), Little Star nibbles on the Mooncake in the sky creating the phases of the moon. Here are several ways you can put readers in the role of Little Star.

Readers Theater
On the opening pages, Mama and Little Star are making a Big Mooncake in their kitchen. Here are some suggested ways to involve your read aloud audience from endpaper to endpaper.
DOWNLOAD Big Mooncake for Little Star: Readers Theater (PDF)

Moon Nibble
This activity allows you to remove (and nibble) the phases of the moon just like Little Star. This activity pairs well with the Reader’s Theater.
DOWNLOAD Big Mooncake for Little Star: Moon Nibble (PDF)

 

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Moon Mobile
With the provided cut-out’s and suggested mobile construction, you can set Little Star in her Mooncake into orbit around your reader’s sleeping space.
DOWNLOAD Big Mooncake for Little Star: Mobile (PDF)

 

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Moon Phase Viewer
This activity with clear drinking cups allows the reader to actively view and change the moon’s phases just like Little Star.
DOWNLOAD Big Mooncake for Little Star: Moon Phase Viewer (PDF)

 

 

Event Poster
DOWNLOAD Big Mooncake for Little Star: Event Poster (PDF)
DOWNLOAD Big Mooncake for Little Star: Editable Event Poster (JPG)
 

ABOUT THE BOOK

A Big Mooncake for Little Star
By Grace Lin
Published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN-13: 9780316404488
Age Range: 4 – 8 Years

Pat, pat, pat…

Little Star’s soft feet tiptoed to the Big Mooncake.

Little Star loves the delicious Mooncake that she bakes with her mama. But she’s not supposed to eat any yet! What happens when she can’t resist a nibble?

In this stunning picture book that shines as bright as the stars in the sky, Newbery Honor author Grace Lin creates a heartwarming original story that explains phases of the moon.

“…Lin successfully combines three distinctive and memorable elements: a fable that avoids seeming contrived, a vision of a mother and child living in cozy harmony, and a night kitchen of Sendakian proportions.”
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
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“…Each page has a glossy black background and small white font. Little Star and her mother have gentle countenances twinkling with merriment. Both wear star-studded black pajamas that are distinguishable from the inky sky only by their yellow stars and the occasional patch of Little Star’s exposed tummy. The cherubic Little Star floats through the darkness, her mooncake crumbs leaving a trail of stardust in the sky. VERDICT The relationship between Little Star and her mother offers a message of empowerment and reassurance. Lin’s loving homage to the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is sure to become a bedtime favorite.”
—School Library Journal, Starred Review
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“…Lin’s storytelling is both clever and radiant. Painted in gouache against perfectly black pages, the characters’ pajamas have no edges, only the stars defining the separation between foreground and background. The mooncake gleams against the black as well, crumbs scattering like stars in the sky—a visual delight, suffusing the book with a feeling of otherworldliness that is offset by Little Star’s childlike authenticity and her loving relationship with Mama. An author’s note on the jacket flap indicates that while this story is not rooted in Chinese cosmology, it is Lin’s homage to the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, her “favorite Asian holiday.”A warm and glowing modern myth.”
—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
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“This folkloric pourquoi tale effectively blends peaceful bedtime rhymes with the lure of irresistible snacking temptation.”
—BCCB, Starred Review