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Creative Teaching Ideas for

THE BIG WAVE

by Pearl S. Buck (1948)


ON THIS PAGE: LitWits hands-on activity ideas and instructions, teaching topics, learning links, and more. Scroll on!

Printables for purchase

About the story


This beautiful little story shows Pearl S. Buck’s writing power, as well as the power of nature and family love. When a tsunami takes the Japanese fishing village to sea, Kino’s family is willing to adopt his friend Jiya, who has survived the “big wave.” They’re just mountainside farmers with little money, though, and to Kino’s dismay, a rich gentleman has also offered to adopt Jiya.  As Kino and his family help Jiya work through his grief and let him make his own decision, they (and we) learn that courage can only emerge and thrive when we face danger. The Big Wave is truly a poetic, heartwarming lesson on the wonder of life.

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Hands-on Fun

Making a plan . . .


There are many ideas in this Hands-on Fun section—don't feel you have to do them all! Go with whatever works best for you and your kids. If you want to focus on a particular teaching point, our Takeaway Topics section can help you narrow down the activity options. And you can enhance discussions during any activity with audiovisual aids from Learning Links or story objects from Prop Ideas.

You might find our narrative arc worksheet helpful for sequencing your activities, teaching the important concept of the arc, and helping kids learn how Pearl Buck put The Big Wave  together.
Narrative arc worksheet & other printables

BookBites: Surf & Terrace

A LitWits activity from the Exposition

BookBites is the part of our literary experience when we get to “taste the story.”  We choose a food right out of the book, and it has to meet at least one criterion:

  • it’s important to a plot point
  • it has thematic significance
  • it’s unfamiliar for reasons of culture, era, or location
 
Our taste of The Big Wave was inspired by Kino’s lunch:  However early he got up, his mother always got up, too, and gave him a bowl of hot rice soup and some bean curd and hot tea before he started. Then she packed his lunch in a clean little wooden box, cold rice and fish and a bit of radish pickle.    ~Ch. 1   


We cooked rice in a steamer during the workshop, and the fragrance added to the ambiance all day. We found a wide variety of pickled radish at the Japanese market, as well as a bag of dried anchovies, which most kids were surprisingly eager to try. 

ALTERNATIVES

If you don’t live near a Japanese market, you can pickle the radish yourself (heat 1/4 cup sugar in 1 cup of white vinegar until melted; cool; add chopped cilantro and one chopped Thai pepper; pour over radish sticks; marinate at least 4 hours in the fridge).

For the cold fish, invite some Swedish immigrants to your snack. Top it off with some seaweed for a real bite of the ocean.

While the kids nibbled, we watched a chopstick lesson, then played traditional Japanese music that might have been played at Jiya and Setsu’s wedding.  
PRINTABLES SET

A Window on the Sea

A LitWits activity from the Conflict (& Falling Action)

The earth and sea descriptions in this book paint poignant and vivid images of lush vegetable gardens, terraced rice patties, and all the different moods of the sea. This project offers a chance to play with all those rich tones and colors while keeping our windows open toward the big wave, even if that wave is only a splash of iconic artwork, imitated.

INSPIRATION

Kino lived on a farm. The farm lay on the side of a mountain in Japan. The fields were terraced by walls of stone, each one of them like a broad step up the mountain.  Centuries ago Kino’s ancestors had built the stone walls that held up the fields. [ . . . ]  Above all the fields stood the farmhouse that was Kino’s home. [. . .] he was glad that he lived so high up because he could look down on the broad blue ocean at the foot of the mountain.   – Ch. 1

SUPPLIES

  • glue
  • colored pencils
  • black card stock, 1 per child
  • brown card stock, 1/2 page per child
  • white card stock, 1  1/4 page per child
  • optional: pocket folders (for worksheets and notes) in blue, green or black, one per child
  • a varied collection of construction and scrapbooking paper in a wide spectrum of blues and greens (keep blues separate from greens)
PREP

  • Trim the brown card stock paper in half vertically, for window shutters.
  • Trim the blue papers into randomly wavy strips for sea, 8 1/2” long, or have the kids cut their own waves from strips.
  • Using a paper cutter, cut the green papers into randomly slanted strips of varying widths for terraces, 8 1/2” long.
  • Trim the black card stock into vertical and horizontal strips for frame, enough for each child to have two of each.
  • Trim the white card stock into 4×5 1/4” rectangles for The Great Wave art, one quarter per child. (This takes a little extra trimming down from 1/4 pages, but otherwise the window shutters won’t close properly.)


INTRODUCTORY DISCUSSION

Talk about the imagery Pearl S. Buck uses for earth and sea, along with the significance of the window facing the sea: 

  • Why is Jiya's family afraid of the ocean?  
  • How does not looking at the ocean help them or hurt them? 
  • Does avoiding the thought of danger actually avoid the danger?
  • How might facing the ocean help people survive a tsunami? 
  • How might it make them feel better the rest of the time?  
  • Are you more scared of something if you can see it coming, or if you can’t?
  • What are some ways you can calm yourself when you’re scared? 
  • What does Jiya's decision to have a window facing the sea (at the end) tell us about the changes in him?

Read the inspiration from the book, above, and show your sample. Point out that no two strips of the same color are touching. Note that in many landscapes the “bottom” is green and the “top” is blue, the reverse of this one — the sky does not have a big role in this story!
DIRECTIONS

Here's a video that walks you through the process, or you can read the step-by-step directions below it.

FIRST:  Glue the white cardstock to the cover of the pocket folder (if you're using one). Layer the terrace (green) strips on the card stock, starting in the middle of the page and working up, until the whole “hillside” (top of the page) is covered, with no white showing. Use sea waves (blue) strips to fill in the bottom of the page with varying ocean colors. Use the black strips to frame the waves and terraces, so that all the strips' edges are hidden.

NEXT:  Draw "The Big Wave," using Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa as a model:

Talk about what makes this art distinctive, and what features the kids might copy. For instance, observe how the bits of foam and water look like little hands with curled fingers. raw the Great Wave on the "window" paper. (You might want to share the process of woodblock printing and Hokusai’s distinct series of prints, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji.) Point out that in our renditions, Mount Fuji in the distance might be replaced with Old Gentleman’s island.

FINALLY:  Fold the brown paper into shutters. Decorate the outside of the shutters with the name of the book and the author. Glue the drawing to the window, and the window to the background. Voila!


While the kids work, play some traditional Japanese music in the background.
PRINTABLES SET

Feeling Elemental

A LitWits activity from the Rising Action

After a quick lesson in the earthquake-volcano-tsunami chain of events, we characterized the elements by BEING them!  Here's how:

DIRECTIONS

Divide the kids into three teams: Earth, Water, and Fire. Have them stand near each other, for now, while you read the following passage from The Big Wave aloud:

Under the deep waters of the ocean, miles down under the cold, the earth had yielded at last to the fire. It groaned and split open and the cold water fell into the middle of the boiling rocks. Steam burst out and lifted the ocean high into the sky in a big wave. It rushed toward the shore, green and solid, frothing into white at its edges. It rose, higher and higher, lifting up hands and claws.  – Ch. 1

Now tell the kids they’re going to act out the sequence of geophysical events that brought on the big wave – the crowded plates of the earth grinding against each other, the magma being forced upward, the earthquake that led to the rise of the ocean. Tell them they’re going to pretend to feel their element’s struggle, and they’ll use their bodies, faces, and voices to show what it’s going through!

It’ll get them warmed up if you model some actions and grimaces, and then have all three teams practice all three reactions together. Once they get the idea, tell them to listen for their turn as you narrate the events.
THE EARTHQUAKE!

In a dramatic, somewhat panicky voice, tell the Earth team that “Earth is feeling SO MUCH PRESSURE! Crowded and cramped! It’s in a tight squeeze! Gotta elbow those rocks and plates aside!” (Quickly point out that there’s no shoving allowed!) The kids will wiggle and squirm and make faces and waggle their elbows; tell them to keep that up.
THE ERUPTION!

Turn to the Volcano team and shout “Now the hot magma is rising! The volcano is beginning to erupt! It’s exploding, it’s frothing, it’s spewing!” (Quickly point out that there’s no spitting allowed!) “It’s hot and sticky and noisy! Loud and frightening!” There should be lots of arm waving and ka-booming and oozing motions; tell them to keep that up.
THE BIG WAVE!

Then turn to the Water team, the sea. “Oh no!” you shout, “the ocean is pulling back, moving out, running away!” The Water team should take your cue and scramble backward across the room, where the team huddles into a bulge. “It’s getting ready to make a run at Earth! Here it comes!” The sea should roar forward, hands waving in the air, toward the Earth and Volcano teams.
But of course, in our scenario, no one gets hurt; no villages wash away. “Fortunately,” you call out just in time, “the Big Wave did NOT get over the sea wall!” 

The Earth sprawls in relief on the floor, relaxed.  Water laps at the Earth’s feet (quickly point out that lapping is not really licking), and Volcano calms down to just a few sizzles and hisses.
PRINTABLES SET

Kakemono

A LitWits activity from the Climax & Resolution

This scroll-making project, featuring the "peace" character, represents Old Gentleman's beautiful home, and the easy life he offers to Jiya--and the fact that Jiya gains peace by choosing a more difficult, yet love-filled life, with Kino's family.

To offer an authentic experience to our kids, we chose rice paper and bamboo as materials, and tinted the backgrounds with earth and ocean watercolors.

INSPIRATION

Then far in the distance they saw Old Gentleman sitting beside a small table. The table was set in front of the open sliding panels that looked into the garden, and Old Gentleman was writing. He held a brush upright in his right hand and he was carefully painting letters on a scroll, his silver-rimmed spectacles sliding down his nose.   – Ch. 3
SUPPLIES

  • rice paper, trimmed - each child will need three pieces in different sizes for the scroll, the mat, and the calligraphy; ours were 7”x12”, 5”x7” and 3.5”x4”
  • bamboo sticks (available online — here, for example)
  • watercolors and paintbrushes
  • embroidery thread in a variety of colors
  • craft glue
  • copies of the “Peace” character model in our printables, one for each child (or shared) 

INTRODUCTORY DISCUSSION

Talk about the difficult decisions that Jiya must make, and why peace comes with each:

  • What does Kino's father mean when he says "Only when [Jiya] dares to remember his parents will he be happy again”? 
  • When Old Gentleman offers Jiya an easy life of wealth and comfort, why does Jiya refuse the offer?
  • Why does Jiya  choose Kiya’s family over seclusion and protection from “real life”? 
  • How does this choice represent all the people who live in this dangerous land?  
  • Why do Jiya and his fellow villagers choose to rebuild on their ancestral land near the shore, instead of in the seclusion and protection of the mountainside?
  • Why does Jiya, as a man, build a house with a window that faces the sea?

Talk about the history and purpose of Japanese scrolls and how they are respectfully displayed, often in alcoves, as in Old Gentleman’s house.

Show your project sample, if you’ve made one.


DIRECTIONS

FIRST:  Choose two or three colors of paint and create a wash over the mat (mid-size) paper. Using plenty of water will create a beautiful, gentle wash. Set the painted papers aside to dry for at least half an hour.


NEXT:  When works spaces are dry, use black paint to practice copying the “Peace” character from the model, using much less water this time. Then paint it on the calligraphy (smallest) papers. While the calligraphy is drying, use one finger to spread glue over the bamboo sticks (everywhere but the ends). Wind the edges of the scroll (largest) paper over the sticks and hold for a few seconds.


FINALLY:  When everything is dry, glue the calligraphy paper to the mat paper, and the mat paper to the scroll. Wind embroidery thread around the ends of the bamboo stick to create a hanger.
PRINTABLES SET

A Special Moment in a Special Place

A LitWits activity 

Pearl S. Buck is a master of word-painting, helping us see the uniqueness of the setting through her descriptions of nature. To help our kids absorb the subtle beauty or tremendous power of such special scenes, we had them write haiku poems about them.

INTRODUCTORY DISCUSSION

Talk about two (or more) scenes where the power and beauty of nature are especially evident.  For instance:

There was one cave that they always visited. They did not dare to go too deep into it, for it stretched downward and under the ocean. They knew this, and at the far end they could see the ocean filling it like a great pool and the tides rose and fell. The water was often phosphorescent and gleamed as though lamps were lighted deep beneath the surface. Once a bright fish lay dead on the rocky shore. In the dark cave it glittered in their hands, but when they ran with it into the sunshine, the colors were gone and it was gray. When they went back into the cave, it was bright again.  -Ch. 1

(Did you wonder why the water glowed in the cave, and made the dead fish glitter? It’s probably the light of tiny “sea fireflies,” Vargula hilgendorfii, famous for lighting up the coasts of Japan when disturbed. Their light-emitting parts stay active even after the creatures have been harvested and dried – in World War II, the Japanese collected them for “night lights” for soldiers!)
*
On the beach he threw himself down and was happy again, and he and Jiya searched for pebbles, blue and emerald, red and gold.  -Ch. 1
*
Into the ocean, ruddy with sunset, they plunged together. The water was warm and soft and held them up, and they swam side by side across the broad channel.  --Ch. 1
*
Morning came, a strange fiery dawn: The sky was red and gray, and even here upon the farms cinders and ash fell from the volcano. Kino had a strange feeling, when he stepped barefoot upon the earth, that it was hot under his feet.
*
The wave ran up the mountain until Kino and Jiya saw the wavelets curl at the terrace walls upon which they stood. Then with a great sucking sigh, the wave swept back again, ebbing into the ocean, dragging everything with it, trees and stones and houses.
*
All the family stood there, and as they watched, Jiya pushed back a panel in the wall. Before their eyes was the ocean, swelling and stirring under the evening wind. The sun was sinking into the water, in clouds of red and gold. They gazed out across the deep waters in silence.


DIRECTIONS

Pass out the creative writing worksheet, if desired, and  have the kids write haikus about these (or any other) story moments that reveal the subtle beauty or tremendous power of nature.
Creative writing worksheet & other printables

Printables Previews

The worksheets and printables used for our activities are sold as a complete set.

Common Core State Standards Alignment for the comprehensive use of our teaching ideas and materials is also included for grades 3, 4, 5 and 6. 
DETAILS

The LitWits Kit

Pack up for the field trip!

A LitWits Kit is a bag or box of supplies you pack up and give to each child right before you begin your "field trip" through the story.  You might be doing one-off projects as you read through the book together, or you might do everything in this guide from top to bottom after the book has been read. However you explore this book in LitWitty ways, kids love the anticipation of opening their kit.

If you'd like to build LitWits Kits for your kids, you could easily arrange the items in a bag, basket, or story-relevant container.  Honestly, it's just as much fun to create a kit as it is to open one!

To make it all the more fun, our printables for many books include special "story packaging" for certain activity supplies, including BookBites. Click the button below for a specific list of contents for this book. 
PRINTABLES SET

Takeaway Topics

Why we chose this book for a "field trip"
This simple story of complex forces and family love was an easy choice for one of our experiential workshops. And it's packed with great takeaway topics, which we're sharing below. In our workshops, we did our best to make these teaching points tangible, meaningful, and memorable in the kids' hands. It's amazing how much kids can learn while they're "just" having fun! 

Happy teaching,
Becky & Jenny


Takeaway 1

Fear & Peace

Though Jiya's family depends on the ocean for fish to eat and sell, they are afraid of it, and their house doesn't have a window that faces the sea. On the other hand, Kino’s father tells Kino “We must learn to live with danger” because to be at peace and enjoy life – “the way of a good Japanese” – one must accept the possibility of danger without being afraid. 

There's a strong message in this story that eace comes from facing troubling things, not by denying they exist. Facing our fears – having a window on the sea – helps us learn, like the boys in the book, that life is well worth its risks and costs.

Hands-on connections in this guide: “A Window on the Sea” project, “Kakemono” project,  narrative arc worksheet
printables set

Takeaway 2

Tough Choices

When Jiya loses his parents in the tsunami, Kino’s father says that “Only when he dares [chooses] to remember his parents will he be happy again.”  As with fear, sadness dissolves into peace by choosing acceptance, not denial, of facts. As long as Jiya chooses not to think about his parents, he is like the villagers who did not want to think about the ocean. When Old Gentleman invites Jiya to come live with him and have a wealthy, beautiful, easy, safe life, Jiya must choose his own future – how protected from “real life” he will be. 
And when he becomes a man, he chooses to build his own house on the beach, with a window that faces the sea. As he tells Kino, “I have opened my house to the ocean […].  I face it.  I am not afraid.”  

This story shows us the value of choosing the harder, but ultimately more peaceful, way of life.

Hands-on connections in this guide:  “Kakemono” project, “A Window on the Sea” project, narrative arc worksheet
PRINTABLES SET

Takeaway 3

Special Places

Pearl S. Buck, who lived in Japan, helps us see, hear, smell, and feel the beauty of Japan. Through her simple yet powerful writing, she helps us understand why Kino and his people have stayed in place for centuries, despite the danger. The beautiful private island, the sacred deer, and the glowing waters of the cave make us want to live there, too--or at least visit. Her word-paintings show us the unique topography, the ingenious terraced farms, and the forces of nature that shape, threaten, and create this special land. 

“To live in the midst of danger is to know how good life is," says Kino's father. What is special seems more so when you aren’t sure you’ll always have it. Kino and Jiya’s places are special--as are everyone's places, worldwide. The author has shown us not only a special place, but the special role a writer has in bringing its specialness to others.

Hands-on connections in this guide:  “Feeling Elemental” activity; “A Window on the Sea” project; "A Special Moment" activity; BookBites snack; props that have to do with farming or the sea; geography, history, vocabulary, and creative writing worksheets
PRINTABLES SET
The Big Wave is chock-full of other subjects to explore, too--ffrom Japanese architecture and history to agricultural methods and marine biology.  Scroll down to see our curated Learning Links for more tangential teaching opportunities, and to see how we brought this book and its ideas to life. 

Learning Links

Explore these links to supplement your reading experience, research points of interest, and prompt tangential learning opportunities.


About the Book & Author


Beyond the Book

PRINTABLES SET

Prop Ideas

When choosing props for our live workshops, we always try to focus on two important categories: props that are unique to the setting, because they help kids understand “what that was like,” and props that are symbolic of themes, because they make big ideas visual and tangible. Both kinds of props generate those wide-eyed, “aha!” moments.

Below is an overview of the display we put together for our live workshop, with descriptions below. You could easily have your kids contribute items to a table over time, as the book is being read. 

Sometimes we create a printable prop; click the button to see the list for this book.
PRINTABLES SET
Kino lived on a farm.  [...]  Kino’s father sold his vegetables and rice and bought his fish.
Daikon, turnips, leek, spinach, okra, sweet potato, taro root, eggplant, horseradish root, lemongrass,  forest mushrooms, ginger root, and bok choy.

Then she packed his lunch [of] cold rice and fish and a bit of radish pickle. 
Pickled radish and a bag of dried anchovies from a Japanese market.

Then she packed his lunch in a clean little wooden box . . .
A traditional bento (lunch) box.

. . . and he and Jiya searched for pebbles blue and emerald red and gold.
Polished pebbles from an imports store.

In the summer Kino worked on the farm helping his father. Even his little sister Setsu and the mother helped when the rice seedlings had to be planted and when the grain was ripe and had to be threshed.
Wheat grass is a look-alike found in health food stores and some mainstream markets.

However early he got up his mother always got up too and gave him a bowl of hot rice soup and some bean curd and hot tea before he started.
Iron tea set and a Japanese ceramic bowl from an imports store and loose green tea. 

Rice paper filled with Chinese writing - someone's homework we found blowing in the woods one day! (Japanese characters are derived from the Chinese.)

Shells represent the setting and the bounty of the ocean that the villagers depend upon.

LitWitty Shareables





Great Quotes

“Fear alone makes men weak. If you are afraid, your hands tremble, your feet falter, and your brain cannot tell your hands and feet what to do.”
*
“No one knows who makes evil storms. We only know that they come. When they come we must live through them as bravely as we can, and after they are gone we must feel again how wonderful is life. Every day of life is more valuable now than it was before the storm.”
*
Upon the beach where the village stood not a house remained, no wreckage of wood or fallen stone wall, no little street of shops, no docks, not a single boat. The beach was as clean of houses as if no human beings had ever lived there. All that had been was now no more.

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Happy teaching,
Becky and Jenny
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*We hope we've inspired you!  If you're feeling a little overwhelmed (we hear that sometimes), remember, you're LitWitting whether you do a lot or a little. You can't go wrong!  The learning is happening, trust us. Just take the pressure off and do what works for your kids, time, and budget.  It's all about inspiring kids to read for fun, so they want to read more—because kids who read more great books learn more great things.

Now get ready for a bunch of wide-eyed kids having “aha!” moments . . . and you, grinning ear to ear because your kids are happily engaged with a great book.

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LitWits teaching ideas and materials for The Big Wave by Pearl S. Buck
Copyright 2013 by LitWits Workshops, LLC.  All Rights Reserved.

All excerpts from The Big Wave are included with the written permission of the Pearl S. Buck Institute.
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