Magical 1st Grade Fairy Tale Lesson Plans for Cinderella Around the World

Once upon a time, there was a class of first graders starting a Cinderella unit full of fairy tale lesson plans. The girls squealed in excitement! But, alas! The boys ewwwwwed in disgust…

Such was the start of my week!  Luckily, since this is my third year to teach this Common Core unit, I knew the boys would be hooked soon…and they were by the end of the first day!

Continent Posters and Anchor Charts

I bought these continent posters on Amazon. A little cutting, labeling on the back and laminating and they were ready to hang above our group tables as the new “names” for our groups! I love having new group signs each unit {and the kids always oooooohh and ahhhhh over them!} They also help give a creative spot for all those anchor charts!

Cinderella Read Alouds with tier 2 vocabulary

The first week of this unit, we learned about Europe and the “traditional” {to us, anyways!} versions of Cinderella.  We read Perrault’s version first.

Since this version is pretty long and full of “old english” terms like haughty, nobility, bore, andragged, we used this book to build our vocabulary!  We charted all !!23!! of our *sparkle* words and discussed their meaning.  My firsties loved trying to listen for and guess the sparkle words on each page!  This is also a great chart because some of these words are used in several of the Cinderella versions!

We also read James Marshall’s Cinderella.  This is a funnier/lighthearted “traditional” version….this one gets the boys interested initially.  It’s their first favorite {of many favorites to come!}  

Elements of Fiction Anchor Charts

The purpose for reading this book {other than to discuss European cultures and compare/contrast it to the other version from this week} was to listen for the elements of fairy tales in this book.  First, we charted the elements of fairy tales.  A teammate of mine told me about this great YouTube video.  It’s a lady talking through the elements of a fairy tale and was much more interesting than me spewing them out to the kids!

Then, we discussed each of the elements from this story and decided whether or not Cinderella is a fairy tale.  We also wrote about each of the elements together on our graphic organizer.  Click the picture below for the {{{FREEBIE}}} of this one.  The Cinderella Unit in my TPT store includes this organizer as well as color versions to use on your Smart Board.

Fairy Tale Phonics

In phonics, we worked on the ow (as in gown) and ou (as in cloud) sounds.  

Since there are so many *royal* words with ow, we charted -own words on our “crown” word family chart.  

Next week, when I have a sub, they will build-write-draw __own words independently. 

Fairy Tale Lesson Plans for Math

After learning about Europe and all of its historical landmarks and awesome castles, we created a composite shape from 2 dimensional shapes….

…or in real people terms, we built our own dream castles out of pattern blocks during math yesterday! The kids had a blast dreaming up some precious castles and they turned out perfect…bat castles and all!

I’ll be blogging about more first grade fairy tale lesson plans and activities. You’re not gonna want to miss the rest of this first grade fairy tale unit! 

After we finish reading all of our silly, exotic and crazy versions of Cinderella and after we finish all of our fun-filled fairy tale lesson plans and projects (including the most fun 1st grade fairy tale ball), we will definitely be sending these first graders off to summer with their happily ever after!