Yesterday we began a new Language Arts unit on Cinderella. I have been teaching this unit for a long time and still love it. (I’ve written about it in a book, in articles, and last summer taught a graduate course on fairy tales featuring Cindy!).
We began by telling the story we knew as a class. It turned out that we all have slightly different ideas of what it is, understandable because there are so many different versions floating around out there.
I then read Ugh by Arthur Yorinks with illustrations by Richard Egielski. No one knew it, but everyone seemed to like it. ‘Woe was Ugh.” is my favorite line in the book. What is yours?
Now everyone has to read five tales in common. Three of them are in the Cindypack I gave you: Charles Perrault’s Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper, (here’s an online annotated version) The Grimm Brothers’ Aschenputtel, and Virginia Hamilton’s Catskinella (from Her Stories). The other two are Louie’s Yeh-Shen and Steptoe’s Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters. If you finish these early, go ahead and read as many of the others in the classroom as you like. Just be sure to record every one that you read in the data sheets. (There are plenty of extra ones on the bookcase under the white board.)