Welcome to Chapter 20: “The Dainty China Country!” This post includes printable resources and teaching ideas that highlight setting, tone, and imaginative world-building.
New to the series? Start with the Introduction to the Book Study for tips on pacing and classroom setup.
Learn how the Oz novel study is organized, with details on the full unit, free sampler, mentor sentences, and chapter handouts.
Mentor sentence lessons, student practice pages, and grammar-focused writing tasks are included.
Download the free handout for this chapter, complete with instructions and materials for the activities described here.
🍽️ Chapter Summary
Chapter 20: “The Dainty China Country”
Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Lion arrive at a large white porcelain wall. The Scarecrow finds a ladder, and the group climbs to the top. They gasp in amazement at the land below. The ground resembles a giant porcelain platter, and the people, homes, and animals appear as knee-high figurines made entirely of china.
A milkmaid and her cow are startled by the travelers’ arrival. The cow breaks its leg, and the group learns that a china mender must glue it back together. As they explore the land, they meet a beautiful princess, a joker, and a clown. All the china figures fear being broken, knowing they lose their beauty once mended.
Dorothy wants to take the princess with her, but the princess explains that she will become stiff if she leaves her country. After an hour of walking, the group reaches the far side of this delicate and unusual land.
Chapter 20: “The Dainty China Country” Projects
Mentor Sentences
One way to turn classic literature into a powerful teaching tool is to pull mentor sentences straight from the text. Instead of random worksheets, students get to see grammar, punctuation, and style in action—inside a story they’re already reading.
📌 Dorothy was shocked to see that the cow had broken her leg off, and that the pail was lying in several small pieces, while the poor milkmaid had a nick in her left elbow.
Focus: Verb Tense + Emotional Response
Practice Prompt: Write a sentence using past tense to describe someone’s reaction to an unexpected event. Use these ideas: surprised, dropped the book.
📌 The Scarecrow climbed up the ladder first, but he was so awkward that Dorothy had to follow close behind and keep him from falling off.
Focus: Coordinating Conjunctions + Sentence Clarity
Practice Prompt: Write a sentence using “but” to show contrast between two actions. Use these ideas: tried to help, made things worse.
📌 “He is considerably cracked in his head, and that makes him foolish.”
Focus: Cause and Effect + Sentence Structure
Practice Prompt: Write a sentence that uses “and that makes…” to explain a consequence. Use this idea: she forgets things, that makes her late.
Figurative Language Focus: Similes & Personification found in “The Dainty China Country”
The china country is full of vivid comparisons and emotional objects. Watch for similes that describe appearance and personification that gives voice to fragile characters.
Similes
- “A floor as smooth and shining and white as the bottom of a big platter.”
– Classic simile comparing the china ground to a platter. - “You’re quite as stiff and prim as if you’d eaten up a poker!”
– Mr. Joker’s playful simile comparing someone’s posture to swallowing a poker.
Personification
- “Rest your brains and do not worry about the wall.”
– Tin Woodman speaks as if the Scarecrow’s brains can rest and worry. - “The cow suddenly gave a kick and kicked over the stool, the pail, and even the milkmaid herself…”
– This cow acts with intention and emotion, reacting to fear. - “The milkmaid cast many reproachful glances over her shoulder…”
– Her glances are described as emotionally expressive. - “She had such a frightened little voice…”
– The voice is given emotional depth and personality. - “He is considerably cracked in his head, and that makes him foolish.”
– Mr. Joker’s cracks are metaphorically linked to his behavior. - “Our joints at once stiffen, and we can only stand straight and look pretty.”
– The china people’s joints are described as reacting to being taken away, almost like a defense mechanism.
Lesson Idea: Use similes to describe fragile or delicate things. Then, write a short scene where an object expresses emotion.
Focus Skills
Each chapter in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Novel Study includes a constructed response question and a skill-based graphic organizer. These two pieces are part of the full-paid unit, which includes comprehension questions, skill lessons, assessments, answer keys, and Google Slides versions.
The free handout linked below includes the activities from the blog post for this chapter. If you’d like the complete set of constructed responses and skill organizers for all 24 chapters, you’ll find them inside the full unit once it is released.
Constructed Response Skill – Mood: Awe / Wonder
Students identify mood and cite textual evidence that builds a sense of amazement.
Standards: RL.5.1, RL.6.1, RL.7.1
Language Arts Skill – Analogies: Part/Whole, Item/Category, Place/User
Students create analogies using relationships from the chapter:
- Part/Whole: leg : cow :: elbow : milkmaid
- Item/Category: clown : performer :: princess : royalty
- Place/User: porcelain land : china people :: Emerald City : Oz
Use a matching activity or analogy builder to define relationships, sort examples, and generate new analogies.
Standards: L.5.5.c, L.6.5.b, L.7.5.b
More Analogy Ideas
Are you looking for additional ideas to teach analogies? This post includes several activities your students will love.
5 Analogy Activities for Middle Schoolers
One featured activity in this post is Round About, a movement-based analogy game that gets students up and interacting. Students search for missing words to complete analogies using a provided list. The twist? The final words are worn on lanyards—turned backward and hanging down each student’s back—so classmates must work together to find and match the correct word.
Try this interactive Hex game that challenges students to connect word relationships across a digital board. Each hexagon hides an analogy question – like dog is to bark as cat is to meow – and players earn their color by answering correctly.
Click here to download the FREE Chapter 20 resource.
Previous: Chapter 19: Attacked by the Fighting Trees
Next: Chapter 21: The Lion Becomes King of the BeastsSubscribe to unlock a password-protected area with:
– All four novel studies in one easy download
– Animated shorts handouts in a tidy PDF
– Bonus teaching materials and updates
