Mrs. Rastin's Class

As one of the beginning units this year, we used the Global Cinderella theme to introduce the recurring classroom theme of "It's a Small World." We began the unit by studying Charles Perrault's version of Cinderella. We discussed the era and time that the story was written and read many versions of that particular story. We then read The Golden Sandal by Rebecca Hickox and Will Hillenbrand. This is a middle eastern version in which a kind and beautiful girl who is mistreated by her stepmother and stepsister finds a husband with the help of a magic fish. After reading the story, we made a vocabulary list, putting the words in our dictionaries. We drew our favourite part of the story, ensuring that the entire page was coloured. We discussed the personality characteristics of the different characters and each child was to write a sentence (Grade 2) or short paragraph (Grade 3) describing the characteristics of a chosen character. We then completed a Venn diagram to compare the traditional Cinderella with this version. Finally, after writing a pattern apple poem for another unit, we wrote pattern poems for The Golden Sandal. The Ontario standards that were taught/assessed during this unit are: express thoughts and feeling about a piece of writing retell a story in proper sequence; identify main ideas and characters write legibly express point of view begin to support views from the story identify some elements of a story use Venn diagram to compare elements of two stories express clear responses to written materials demonstrate skill and knowledge of computer programme (KidPix)
The Red Fish was kind to Maha because he gave a coin to her so she could buy a fish. ~Damion	The Stepmother was kind until she married Maha's dad. And that is when she made her clean all the time. That is when the stepmother was mean and cruel to Maha ~Kyle
Maha was thoughtful when she let the fish go. Maha was kind to the stepmother when she wanted the father to marry her. Maha was helpful when she helped clean. ~Ben	The Red Fish was helpful when he gave Maha the comb, the dress and the golden sandals. ~Storm
Maha was scared when she was going to get beaten if she came back empty handed. Maha was forced to clean all day and night. Maha was very happy when she was going to have a wedding. ~Randy	Maha was really polite to the Red Fish because she let the Red Fish go. ~Christopher G

Stepmother cruel, jealous going to the henna Stepmother ~Stephanie	The Golden Sandal shining in the water scared the horse. The Golden Sandal ~Storm
Red Fish magical, powerful helping Maha like the fairy godmother ~Keith	Maha kind, thoughtful hard-working and beautiful lost the golden sandal Maha ~Courtney
Red Fish powerful, magic giving some wishes Red Fish ~Christopher E.	Red Fish powerful, kind granting wishes, helping Maha Fairy Godmother ~Hunter
Red Fish kind, cool giving Maha a coin so she wouldn't be beat Maha's friend ~McKenzie	Maha kind, sweet hard-working Maha ~Tyson
~Kyle
~Jin	~Coramia
Red Fish kind, generous giving, smart Red Fish ~Taylor	Red Fish kind, powerful gave Maha a coin Red Fish ~Meghan
The Golden Sandal shiny sandal shining in the river The Golden Sandal ~Barbie	Red Fish coin, comb kind to Maha Red Fish ~Samantha
Maha beautiful, kind running over the bridge Red Fish ~Adam