The Empty Pot
Picture Book Read Aloud
book summary
This story takes place a long time ago in China and tells the story of Ping, a young boy who grew the most beautiful flowers in China. The Emperor had a similar love for flowers. When it was time to decided who would be the heir to the throne, the Emperor decided to give a flower seed to each child in the kingdom. The Emperor proclaimed, “Whoever can show me their best in a year’s time shall succeed me to the throne!” Because of his experience and love for flowers, Ping was sure he would be able to grow the biggest, most beautiful flower and would become the next Emperor.
Ping spent the entire winter trying to grow the perfect flower, but he could not even get the seed to sprout. He tried everything he could think of from more water and better soil to a bigger pot and still the seed would not grow. When the day arrived to present the flowers they had grown to the Emperor, all the children had big beautiful flowers and Ping was left with an empty pot. Ping was embarrassed, but his dad encouraged him to take the empty pot to the Emperor because he had tried his hardest and his best effort was good enough for the Emperor. When the Emperor sees the empty pot, he questions why Ping would bring an empty pot. Crying, Ping explained that he cared for the seed every day in the best way he knew how, but it still didn’t sprout. After hearing Ping’s explanation, the Emperor announced that he had given all the children seeds that had been cooked, so it would have been impossible for anyone to get the seed to grow. The Emperor declared that Ping would be the next Emperor of the land because he exhibited honesty and integrity.
The illustrations in this book are stunning and this story would be a great conversation starter about honesty and about doing your best even when you're discouraged! The teachable moments in this book are endless!
suggested teaching point
On page 3, point out to young readers the author’s word choice and use of similes.
The author said that because flowers were planted everywhere, “the air smelled like perfume”. This phrase is a simile and was used by the author to help the reader better understand what it was like to have the flowers everywhere. A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two different things using the words “like” or “as”. Think of other similes the author could have used that would have had the same meaning. The air smelled like ______.
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