Cinderella's Window: Project Outline

a first grade project

Time-frame for completion: 8 40-minute sessions in the library for each class, with additional small-group time in the classroom, library or lab as needed.

Final student product: Each student will draw a picture of what a Cinderella character in another country would see outside the window.  The picture will show at least three facts the student has learned during the project.  Below the picture, each student will write a paragraph describing the view from the window.  The final projects will be displayed in a "Cinderella Art Gallery" in the first grade hallway.  Students will wrap up the unit with a class field trip to a play at a local college.

Learning standards:   NYS ELA Standars 1 and 2;  NYS Social Studies Standard 3; Information Literacy Standards; District Technology standards 3, 4, 5;  District writing goals.

Lesson One: Introduction

Begin with a VoiceThread showing a few stories from around the world.  Talk about Cinderella variants, and how people carried stories with them, wherever they went in the world. Read a familiar version: : Cinderella, by Barbara Karlin, illustrated by James Marshall. 

Lesson Two: Small Group Cinderella stories

Organize a few guest readers, so that each small group can meet with a grownup who will read and discuss the story with the students.  Meet in hallway outside the library, and divide kids into groups. Before beginning the story, ask kids to think about how today's story is the same or different from the story we read last week.  Read the story and discuss it.

Stories and countries:

• Diamonds and Toads, by Ellen Schecter / France
• Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, by John Steptoe / Zimbabwe
• Chinye, by Obi Onyefulu / Nigeria
• The Twelve Months, by Rafe Martin/ Czech Republic
• Anklet for a Princess, by Lila Mehta / India
• Abadeha, by Myrna J. de la Paz / Philippines

Lesson Three: Introducing Research Folders

• Books standing on tables, research folders ready, pencils on each table.
• Begin with a whole group lesson using the Smartboard. 
• Discuss our SuperThree research process: Plan, Do, Review
• Show folder, show Smartboard image of pages.
  • organizer page one
  • organizer page two
• Focus on page one. Do a sample of filling out page one, using Marshall Cinderella as example. 
• Send the students to work together in collaborative groups.  Children will be filling out the story title and the name of the country they will be learning about. If time permits, begin looking at country maps. 

Lesson four: Research

• Start with kids seated on the floor. 
• Using the projector / Smartboard, show how we will begin to fill out page two. Model process with France.
• Divide the children into their working groups and assign a "leader reader."  Each group will have a book on their country; the leader turns the pages.  The children should discuss what they see on the pages.
• Seat children at computers so that they are near others in their group.  They are working individually on their organizers, but can help others in their group to locate information on-screen.
• Today's focus is on answering questions about each country's food, clothing, animals & plants, and traditions, using the our Cinderella wiki page.
• Each child can start to find their own "Amazing fact." 

Lesson Five: Research Continued

The children will work in small groups to finish their research.

Lesson Six: Writing

The writing process begins. Model how an introductory sentence is written and how to turn a research fact into a sentence.  Writing will begin in the library, and will continue in small group work in the classroom. 

Lesson Seven: Editing, Drawing begins

The writing process concludes. Children will work on editing their rough copies, and will begin a final draft.  As children finish the writing piece, they will begin their drawings of what Cinderella would see out the window in their countries.

Lesson Eight: Art Gallery and Theater Field Trip

Children will complete their "window" drawings.  Finished drawings and accompanying paragraph will be displayed in a "Cinderella Gallery" in the 1st grade hallway.  The project concludes with a tour of the 'art gallery," and a field trip to a local college arts center for a theater production of Cinderella.

Small Group work:

Small groups will meet as needed to finish student organizers, work on writing, and finish artwork.

Cinderella image from Project Gutenberg via Wikimedia Commons.

Cinderella's Window is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.