Cinderella and Cendrillon

I teach on Tuesdays. Every Tuesday from now 'til May. All day Tuesday I'm running and teaching and guiding and playing and doing what I love best. Anyhow, I plan to blog about my older classes here. Follow the link if you want to see what we've done in Play and Learn, my younger class.

This semester I'm venturing into the world of 6-8 year olds. Well, I live with children who are 6 and 9, (and 5 and almost 1) but I had not yet taught this age range at our co-op. I love it! The ideas and thoughts and speculations that are shared in my class are amazing.

I teach Cinderkids. The goal is to read Cinderella stories from around the world, (I've found more than 20!) analyze and compare the stories, determine what the elements of the story tell us about the culture in which it was told, experience bits of that culture and have fun! We may even write our own stories at the end, using our favorite parts from the tales we hear.

In our first class I read two stories: Cinderella by Barbara McCintock and Cendrillon by Robert D. San Souci. I wanted to start with a "traditional" Cinderella tale. McCintock's did not disappoint. I chose this one for its illustrations, 17th century France, and its story line - Cinderella goes to the ball twice and forgives her sisters in the end.

The children have a graph to fill out for each story. We will use the graphs to help us compare the stories and for when we write our own. The class is evenly split. I have four older students who should fill out the graphs completely. There are four younger ones for whom the graph is not as important. They can write what they want, where they want or draw pictures. They are still using their critical thinking and reading skills. (For parents: I will keep the graphs with me so you do not need to worry about finding them each week.)

Here is the graph information for Cinderella:
Characters: Cinderella, mother, father, step-mother, two step-sisters, fairy godmother, prince Trouble Makers: step mother, two step sisters
Helpers: fairy godmother
Magical Events: changes pumpkin, four mice, rat, four lizards and clothes
Ending: married, finds husband for each sister
Special Item: glass slipper
Food: oranges
Dress: gowns, hair up and fancy
Architecture: grand palace, large homes
Value: beauty, silent suffering, small feet, kindness, forgiveness

As I said, traditional. We only discuss the characters and values. The children can record them if they wish.

Next we traveled to the Caribbean for Cendrillon. There are many similarities. The author even refers to France and uses some French in the text.
Characters: Cendrillon, mother, father, step-mother, step-sister, godmother, Paul
Trouble Makers: step-mother,
Helpers: godmother with a magic stick
Magical Events: changes breadfruit, six agoutis, (guinea pigs), opossum, five lizards and clothes
Ending: three day long wedding
Special Item: pink slipper
Food: punch, chocolate sherbet
Dress: satin, velvet, colorful, shift for servants
Architecture: large homes/manors
Value: silent suffering, true love

This is the only Cinderella tale I've found so far that is told from a different view point. The godmother tells the story, and she is not a fairy. She is given a magic stick from her mother, to use only for someone she truly loves. Everyone in class noticed the different narration right away. They also quickly found the similarities and differences between the two stories.

Culture Food: In Cinderella, she shares her plate of oranges with her sisters. The godmother raves about the chocolate sherbet served in Cendrillon. So we ate oranges and enjoyed chocolate, soy ice cream, (vanilla mango for those with allergies.)

Culture Music: Oboe Concerto - Adante by Marcello and Parfum Des Iles by Kali. The children picked out the different instruments they heard in each. (Note: I was beyond thrilled when I found Parfum Des Iles. It is from the exact same island that the story Cendrillon is told from, Martinique.)

Culture Craft: none this week. We ran over an hour as it was. Too busy with multiple servings of oranges and ice cream. =)