Cinderella Around the World Projects
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Europe |
Cinderella by Barbara Karlin or Cinderella and Her Animal Friends by Walt Disney
Read the story and discuss the characteristics of fairy tales found in Cinderella:
- Good character vs. evil character
- Magic element in the story
- Three's in the story (three wishes, three sisters, three deeds etc.)
Create the setting for the story through drawing, collage, or computer programs. Discuss the animals and forests in Europe. Discuss the time of the Cinderella story and the actions of the characters: Do they behave like people around us? Do they have the same customs and lifestyle as we have?
Let students use encyclopedias or internet to explore information about a European country. Or let groups of students read a story from a European country and compare the characters, actions, setting, and clothes in the story.
North America
The Rough Faced Girl by Rafe
Martin , Ashpet by Joanne Compton,
or Cinder Edna by Ellen Jackson
Integrate The Rough Faced Girl into a study of Native Americans. Talk about the respect Native Americans have for nature. Compare this story to the European Cinderella.
Integrate Ashpet in a study of communities, mountain chains in US, or a comparison of life now and long ago. Use this in conjunction with When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant, Town Mouse and Country Mouse by Jan Brett, Possum Come a Knockin' by Nancy Van Laan and Coat of Many Colors by Dolly Parton to study mountain culture.
Read Cinder Edna. Use Venn diagrams, pictures, or comparison charts to compare the two neighbors.
South America
The Hummingbird King by Argentina Palacios
Read The Hummingbird King. Compare the story, setting, and events to the classic Cinderella story. Discuss the rain forests.
Asia
Yeh-Shen by Ai-Ling Louie or Korean Cinderella by Shirley Climo
Read Yeh-Shen or Korean Cinderella. Discuss how the Cinderella character was chosen and the way the magic happened. The magic is very different from the traditional stories. There is also a very good CBS Storybreak version of Yeh-Shen on video to view.
Africa
Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe,
or The Egyptian Cinderella by Shirley Climo
Read Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters. Make a fold out grass hut. Use the inside to let students draw the beginning, middle, and ending of the story. Or they could draw the good character on one side, evil characters on the other side, and how the Cinderella character is chosen at the end of the story.
Read The Egyptian Cinderella during a study of Egypt. Discuss the setting, clothing, and events that make it a truly Egyptian story.
Antarctica
Cinderella Penguin by Janet Perlman and
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer by Robert L. May
Read Cinderella Penguin. Discuss why a Cinderella story from Antarctica couldn't have people characters. Go to the other pole and read Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Point out the Cinderella parallels in this well-known story and compare and contrast the animals that live at each pole.
Let the children write a class, group or individual Cinderella story using polar animals from one pole for the characters. They could research their animals to write their stories or the class could focus on one main animal from each pole and write the class story.
Australia
Treat Australia like Antarctica and let the students research the unusual Australian animals.
Based on that research as a class, group, or individuals, the children could write a Cinderella story with animals from Australia as main characters.
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After reading several versions, let students construct a triarama with a setting from their favorite version of Cinderella.
Let students pick a version to make a setting on the computer using Kid Pix drawing. Then let students draw main characters to glue on popsicle sticks. Make a slit in the setting paper and you have individual puppet shows.
Make a Cinderella Book in the shape of a shoe. Students will work as a class, team, or individual to fill out the pages with a comparison of the good characters, evil characters, setting, how the Cinderella was chosen for the prince and the magic in the story.
Read "Cinderella Around the World" as a class or present it as a play. You may find a copy of this original play on the internet at this address: Let students become characters in one of the versions and send postcards to the class.
Students can write a brief message from a character and draw a scene from the continent on the front.
Let students tell the story from another viewpoint like the magic slipper, the Fairy Godmother, the Prince, the stepsisters, the house, etc.
Get "wacky" with Cinderella. Read some of the humorous versions of Cinderella. Give teams another shoe to come up with a wacky Cinderella story so Cinderella will marry the Prince based on that shoe. Examples: baseball cleats, muck lucks, ballet slippers, combat boots, cowboy boots, jellies, Air Jordans, platform shoes, flip-flops, etc.
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