Integrated Thematic Unit - Cinderella Activities

Language Arts Cinderella Vs. Cinderella -- A compare/contrast writing activity.

Geography Where in the World is Cinderella? -- An activity utilizing map skills and geography, with a little comparative sociology and advanced computer skills as extension activities.

Music The Return of OperaMan! -- A script-writing and performance activity, sans the opera singing - unless you really WANT to!

Cinderella in the Language Arts
(Reading, Writing, and Rags-to-Riches!)

Cinderella Vs. Cinderella

Children's Literature Web Guide's Cinderella: Contains a number of links to other Cinderella sites, including a number of teaching ideas.
Fairy Tale Encyclopedia - Cinderella: A brief overview of the story, along with a little history and discussion of variations. There are a number of good links from this site, as well.
Shen's Books: This site describes the elements of a Cinderella story, and contains a link called "In Search of Cinderella," which offers a list of countries, leading to Cinderella versions from those countries.

Cinderella Books from Around the World

A list of various Cinderella books, although this list is not categorized by country.

Other Resources: various versions of Cinderella, Cinderella: Oryx Multicultural Folktale Series by Judy Sierra (optional, but very useful!), database software (optional), compare/contrast paper outline

Procedures: Use the on-line resources to identify and obtain various versions of Cinderella. As a class, decide on the characteristics to compare (or the teacher may prefer to make an executive decision here!). As the students read the books, have them identify major characteristics of the story on a database (or on a graph on paper, if no database is accessible). Possible fields are listed below - use whichever items are appropriate for your students.

Story	The Brothers Grimm's Cinderella
Main Character	Cinderella
Family	father, cruel step-mother, two wicked step-sisters
Main Character's Wish	to go to the ball
Impossible Tasks	pick out lentils from ashes
How She Attains Wish	birds do as Cinderella bids, magic bird (spirit of her mother?) gives her gowns and slippers
Where They Meet	3-day festival
Animals?	birds who help Cinderella
Proof of Identity	the golden slipper fits
Magic	birds help Cinderella & speak to the Prince
Important Person	Prince
What Happens to Evil Characters	step-sisters are blinded by birds (plus they ALREADY cut off part of their feet, so they have to live with that, too!)

After the information is gathered, go over the format for a compare/contrast paper. We use a four paragraph format, consisting of:


I.  Introduction

	A.  Information about Cinderella in general

	B.  Information about the first Cinderella story to be compared

	C.  Information about the second Cinderella story to be compared

II.  Similarities

	A.  Similarity number one

		1.  Detail, elaboration, or additional discussion of similarity

	B.  Similarity number two

		1.  Detail, elaboration, or additional discussion of similarity

	C.  Similarity number three

		1.  Detail, elaboration, or additional discussion of similarity

III.  Differences

	A.  Difference number one

		1.  Detail, elaboration, or additional discussion of difference

	B.  Difference number two

		1.  Detail, elaboration, or additional discussion of difference

	C.  Difference number three

		1.  Detail, elaboration, or additional discussion of difference

IV.  Conclusion

	A.  General overview of similarities and differences

The students then use TAAS elaboration and editing strategies to complete their paper.

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Cinderella in Geography
(The Girl Gets Around!)

Where in the World is Cinderella?

Shen's Books: This site describes the elements of a Cinderella story, and contains a link called "In Search of Cinderella," which offers a list of countries, leading to Cinderella versions from those countries.
Cinderella Books from Around the World: A list of various Cinderella books, although this list is not categorized by country.

For Extension Activity #2

A Look at Cinderella as Female Role Model Propaganda: An INCREDIBLE site to foster discussion for older students. What is the role of a woman in the society that begat the Cinderella story? Do other variations provide a look at other societies' views of women? This site has a number of connecting pages which provide various Cinderella stories, and continues the discussion. If you check out this site, be sure to wander around to the other applicable areas!

Other Resources: world maps, Cinderella stories from around the world, reference books about the selected countries, database software (for Extension Activity #2)

Procedures: Use the online resources to compile a list of Cinderella stories from around the world. After reading various Cinderella stories, locate each country of origin on a map. As a bulletin board and/or individual activity, create a map with a map key to identify each country and the title of their Cinderella story.

Extension Activity #1: As an additional activity, students may choose a country and use research and writing skills to write a paper about that country.

Extension Activity #2: Older students may use this activity as an introduction to comparative sociology, by creating a database or comparative graph. After reading the information in the A Look at Cinderella as Female Role Model Propaganda website, discuss the similarities and differences between the stories and the cultures that created the stories. The students will need to use research skills to find background information on each country. Some possible fields may include:

Country
Type of Community (rural, urban, etc.)
Foods Mentioned in Story
Buildings or Homes in Story
Clothing in Story
Gender of Main Character
Positive Characteristics of Main Character
The "Important Person" in the Story
How Main Character Receives Wish

Extension Activity #3: Upper level computer classes may wish to create an Authorware or Hypercard stack - or a webpage - consisting of a world map with links to information on each country and/or its Cinderella story.

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Cinderella in Music
(Singing Cindy!)

The Return of OperaMan!

Cinderella: The Story of the Ballet: The English National Ballet's website offers a complete synopsis of the story of Prokofiev's ballet of Cinderella. They also have linking pages to other information concerning the history of the ballet and other versions of Cinderella.
Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella: This New York City Opera site provides a synopsis of the Rodgers and Hammerstein version of Cinderella, a discography, and some historical context of the show.

Other Resources: recordings of these (or other) versions of Cinderella (optional), various video versions (such as the Walt Disney movie or Fairie Tale Theater) (also optional)

Procedures: Introduce the students to the ballet of Cinderella by way of audio or video recording, or a live performance (or, preferably, more than one of these!). Discuss the various storylines, and the elements that go into writing for a performance (script-writing). Individually or in groups, let the students write their own script of Cinderella to be performed as a puppet show or a skit/play. As a variation, you may wish to bring in various video productions of Cinderella, such as Walt Disney's movie or the Fairie Tale Theater version. Students may wish to compare and contrast the different versions, and perhaps utilize certain aspects of these productions into their original scripts.

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