| We started our project with The Talking Eggs by
Robert D. San Souci. But then we enjoyed reading many more of the
Cinderella books including: Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China
retold by Ai-Ling Louie, Vasilisa the Beautiful translated by Thomas P.
Whitney, The Egyptian Cinderella by Shirley Climo, Mufaro's Beautiful
Daughters by John Steptoe and The Persian Cinderella by Shirley Climo.
We have a large number of children (nearly 50%) whose families come from
countries other than the United States so we especially tried to read
the tales that came from their homelands. We compared the tales, looking
especially at characters, setting and how magic was used to solve the
problem. Using Process Writing techniques we then worked in our small
table groups of four children to write our own Cinderella tales from
countries of our choosing. Everyone illustrated their own table's story
but we only could send a few of the illustrations. We have had a great
time reading over other class's projects and have LOVED exploring
"Cinderella Around the World"!
Student Stories Red Table Parul: An Indian Cinderella Tale One hundred years ago in India there lived a Princess named Parul, which means pearl. Princess Parul was very, very good. She helped people, cared about the world, picked up trash and never littered. A bad guy named Caliko heard about how good Parul was and he didn't like it. So he kidnapped Parul. He took her to his castle and made her be his servant. He wanted to make her as bad as he was. But she said, "No!" And she tried to escape. The Wizard, Phillip, found out that Caliko had captured Princess Parul. He had the key to his magic hat. Phillip used his magic to send Parul back to her house. Phillip made Caliko be his slave and now no one is afraid of Caliko anymore. And Parul lived happily ever after.
Purple Table Camilla and Paul: A New Orleans Cinderella Tale In New Orleans there is a rich boy named Paul. Good Queen Blanche, who knows all, went to find Paul to tell him that she had a daughter named Camilla. Blanch wanted Camilla to marry Paul because he's famous, rich and handsome. But she couldn't find Paul because the only Magic Alligator in the land put a spell on him and turned him into a bird. There are lots of kinds of birds so even Good Queen Blanche, who knows all, couldn't figure out which bird he was. Camilla found the Alligator and got him to turn her into a bird too. Poor Blanche was very worried when Camilla didn't come home. She went out to find her but she didn't find her for one month or one week or two weeks. Now birds know who other birds are so Camilla found Paul. The Magic Rule says when one magic bird finds another the spell is broken so they turned back into people. Since they found each other the Magic Rule also broke the Alligator's magic. He wasn't magic any more and he got old and died. Camilla and Paul returned to Paul's house to get married so Camilla could meet his mom and everything. They asked Queen Blanche to put on a marriage ceremony. They got married and they lived happily ever after.
Orange Table Shamire and Katya: An Australian Cinderella Two hundred fifty years ago in the summertime in Australia there lived a young prince named Shamire. He had two magic crowns. One was for him. But he had to find the girl that the other magic crown fit. So he put the crown in a bag and set off. He searched and searched all over the countryside. He searched for so long that he got very tired and fell asleep under a tree. While he was sleeping Evil Cougar came by and kidnapped him. He took him to his cave and locked him in a dungeon. Nearby was a small house with a girl named Katya. Katya was very poor and had only one dress, which was all in rags. She was on the porch of her house when she saw Evil Cougar dragging Prince Shamire to the cave. So she followed them to the cave. When she got there Evil Cougar was sleeping. He was tossing around in his sleep with his paws going back and forth. As he tossed he whacked his paws against the wall and his claws broke off. Katya slipped quietly into the cave and picked up the claws. She used the claws like a key to open the dungeon door. When Prince Shamire saw her he said, "Why are you here?" "To rescue you!", Katya told him. "Oh, thank you!" To show his thanks, Prince Shamire gave Katya the magic crown from the sack. She put it on and it fit perfectly. The cougar didn't have claws anymore so no one was afraid of him. He got old and didn't bother anyone at all. Katya and Prince Shamire got married and they lived happily ever after.
Blue Table Rosito: A Mexican Cinderella Tale Not long ago in Mexico there was a bandit named Malhombre. He had a servant girl named Rosito. He made her do all the work. She had to pick wheat and cook his meals and swab the floors. It was time for Prince Mexito's birthday and so he invited everyone in Mexico to a Festival. Malhombre told Rosito that she couldn't go. She had to stay home and do the chores. But Queen Pharita knew exactly how many people there were in Mexico so she saw that Rosito was missing. She sent her knights to get Rosito. They went swiftly in their chariots to fetch her and bring her to the Festival. Her clothes were very dirty so the Queen gave her new clothes to wear. The Prince fell in love with her at the Festival and said he wanted to marry her. But Malhombre came home and found Rosito missing! He crashed the birthday party and kidnapped Rosito. He hid her away. The Prince sent the knights again to search every secret place. They saw the Queen's clothing so they knew that they had found Rosito. They took Rosito back to Prince Mexito. They got married and had Malhombre put in jail. And Prince Mexito and Princess Rosito lived happily ever after.
Green Table Katrina: A Chinese/Russian Cinderella Tale In 1981 the Evil Wizard Igor came from Russia down to China and kidnapped a poor couple away from their little daughter Katrina and their home. He sent them magically to North America. They had only one set of clothes to wear and those clothes were soon all rags. So they froze to death. Katrina had to live with her old grandparents in China and they were very poor. When the Evil Wizard Igor realized that Katrina was alive he decided to kidnap her, too. But he didn't kill her. Instead he took her to Russia, where he made her his slave. She had to make him pumpkin pie and cook for him and do all the work. Then Igor married an evil woman named Dahdoo. Katrina had twice the work to do and they only fed her one crumb of food everyday. Katrina had only one friend in the world. It was a lizard named Matthew. She was very kind to Matthew and everyone else was mean to him. So Matthew went to the market one day and bought Katrina a beautiful pair of shoes. Katrina liked them very much and always wore them. She thought that she could wear them to go to King George's ball. But one night Matthew took one of the shoes while Katrina was sleeping. Matthew took the shoe to King George, because he was really the king's helper pet. King George decided that he would search his kingdom for the girl who could wear the beautiful shoe. Meanwhile, Katrina woke up and found that one of her beautiful shoes was missing. She was very upset because she didn't know how she could tell Matthew that she had lost a shoe. She ran into the backyard, crying. When King George got to Igor and Dahdoo's house, Dahdoo said that the shoe was hers. She tried to push her foot into the tiny shoe. "Oh, take it off, take it off! It's cutting off my circulation." King George started to leave and then he saw Katrina crying in the backyard. He gave her the shoe to try on. She put it on and it fit perfectly. She was already wearing the other shoe. King George told her that Matthew was really his helper and had helped him to find Katrina because she had been so kind to Matthew. Katrina and the King got married. Katrina became a queen and they lived happily ever after.
Yellow Table Suleiman and Ashley: A Texan Cinderella Story In the year 2011 in Texas there lived a poor mother named Ashley and her daughter, Liza. They had a log cabin they lived in and only one old horse named Clopsy. A bad guy named Jackson lived on a new ranch nearby. Jackson wore a long horn steer skull on his head and looked through the eyes. He rode on a buffalo. One night he came and stole Clopsy. Ashley and Liza went looking for Clopsy. They found a new horse and named it Silver. Silver was very, very, very fast! He was silver and gold colored. Ashley said that Liza could have him for her very own. Silver had a magic silver band on him. Liza and Silver went riding after Jackson while Ashley made lunch. They caught Jackson and brought back Clopsy to the log cabin so then they had two horses. As they rode home Jackson said, "We will meet again." But while they were running on the mountain, Liza had lost the magic silver band. Slaves came riding by and found the band. "I must show this to my master," said one of the slaves. They took the band everywhere and finally found Liza. Silver caught Jackson and the police put him in jail. Jackson used an automatic knife and made a hole in the roof but he couldn't get out. She and Prince Suleiman got married at 6:00 and lived happily ever after and Silver wore silver armor for the wedding.
State of Michigan Language Arts Standards and Early Elementary Benchmarks Content Standard Content Standard Content Standard Content Standard Content Standard Content Standard Content Standard Content Standard
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