~  We Love Cinderella  ~

Mrs. McGowan's First Grade
H. W. Mountz School, Spring Lake, NJ

Oh, how we all love Cinderella! We will be reading several versions of this wonderful tale during the year.  We recently participated in an Internet project using the Cinderella theme.

Cinderella Around the World
Hosted by Susan Silverman and Patti Knox
(Click on title to view Project Homepage)

Our class shared two versions of this wonderful tale: the classic Cinderella by Charles Perrault, illustrated by Marcia Brown, and John Steptoe's, Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale.

         

We used these stories in our Back-to-School unit on "Friendship", The children listened for ways the characters showed or were given friendship. One important thing we noticed was that friends often help each other. The fairy godmother helped Cinderella get to the ball in that tale.  In the other story, Nyasha helped a little boy and was kind to other characters as well. Our students showed how they help each other in class: 1st Grade Friends

While reading Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters we found Africa on our big world map.

Zimbabwe is in southern Africa.  After listening to both stories, the children contributed comments to be used in our first Venn Diagram of the year. Mrs. McGowan wrote them on sentence strips. Later the students read the comments again and placed them on our chalkboard diagram.

The children chose a character to feature in their drawings and writing.


Ayse: Nyasha with Nyoka, the Snake



Anna: Nyasha Helps the Little Boy



Hannah: Nyasha and the Snake

Nyasha: African Cinderella

by Hannah, Anna, Ayse, Annie, Amy, Thomas

* nice
* young, pretty
* gave food to the boy
* nice to the old lady
* wanted to be queen
* wanted to be the King's wife
* wanted to be nice to her sister

Manyara

by Annie

* Nyasha's sister
*  was nasty to people but not to her dad, Mufaro.
* didn't give food to the hungry boy who had nothing.
* wanted to marry the King, but she didn't know that
he was the hungry boy.

Nyoka

by Scott, Brian, T. E., Dominique, Ryan, Anthony, Caitlin

*a green snake
* watched Nyasha
* wanted to see what she was like
* watched Nyasha to see if she was good
* made friends with Nyasha and saw she was nice.
* turned from the snake, to the boy, to the old lady, and back to the King
* wanted to marry her when he was the king
* really was the king

We enjoyed this project and look forward to reading more Cinderella stories this year!

The class activities published here are aligned with our state and technology standards:

New Jersey Core Curriculum Standards

Language and Literacy

3.2 listen actively in a variety of situations to information from a variety of sources.
3.3 write in clear, concise, organized language that varies in content and form for different audiences and purposes.
3.4 read various materials and texts with comprehension and critical analysis.
3.5 view, understand, and use nontextual visual information.

National Educational Technology Standards for Students. (NETS)

Students use productivity tools to collaborate in constructing technology-enhanced models, preparing publications, and producing other creative works.

2. Social, ethical, and human issues
·          Students develop positive attitudes toward technology uses that support lifelong learning, collaboration, personal pursuits, and productivity.

4. Technology communications tools
·          Students use telecommunications to collaborate, publish, interact with peers, experts, and other audiences.

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