Session 1:
Read Aloud a Traditional Version of Cinderella

• Choose a traditional version of Cinderella to read aloud to your children.  Review read aloud strategies to help with this. 
• After the reading, discuss Cinderella's name and how she got it.  Engage your students in a conversation about nicknames and if any of them have nicknames of their own.  This could also extend into a shared or interactive writing activity.  Using chart paper, list the students' names and/or nicknames. 
• Post the finished work so the students can later re-read from it as a reading around-the-room activity during center time.
• Leave the book out for students to explore on their own.

 

• Engage the students in a discussion of the behavior of  Cinderella's stepsisters.  Would your students want their sisters or brothers to act like this?  Why or why not? 
• Compose a letter with your students, from Cinderella's perspective.  Decide as a group, which character she will write her letter to: the stepsisters, stepmother, father or fairy godmother?  This activity could be composed as a shared writing activity.  If it is executed as an interactive writing activity you may need to allow more than one day to complete it depending on the level of your students.
• Extend the activity during center time.  Encourage your students to compose (and/or illustrate) more Cinderella letters at the writing center, on their own or with adult dictation. 

• Discuss all the chores that Cinderella was responsible for and list them on chart paper for your students, on the left side of the paper, for example.  Then, on the right side of the paper, list the classroom jobs. 
• Find similarities and/or differences between the two lists, using a highlighting marker  to accentuate the similarities.
• Extend the activity during center time.  Post the finished work so the students can later re-read from it as a reading around-the-room activity.

• Using a venn diagram (see interactive writing ), engage your students in a discussion of how each version is similar or different to the traditional text. 
• Leave these books out along with traditional versions.  The students need to have opportunities to explore the various texts and illustrations for further comparison on an independent basis.
• Tie in a lesson on world geography and explore the various regions' settings in terms of map activities and cultural awareness.  (This could be a part of a separate unit on Korea or the Caribbean island nations with other works of literature, music and art activities integrated into the curriculum.) 
• Note, these are just two examples of multicultural retellings of the traditional tale.  There are many, many more.
• For more multicultural retellings of the Cinderella tale, check out this link.

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