Fairy Tales in Different Cultures--Little Sister and the Month Brothers

Today we are going to discuss a wonderful Cinderella story called Little Sister and the Month Brothers. From the research I have done it looks like this story is from Czechoslovakia. There are also other versions around, but I have not checked them out yet. In the collage below are the other two versions as well as both the paperback and hard cover of our featured book.  I also found another version on-line here.

Before going into the story a little history on Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia was a sovereign state from 1918 to 1993. On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia split into two countries: Czech Republic and Slovakia.

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From 1939 to 1945 Czechoslovakia was under Nazi Germany rule, however its government was still operation in the United Kingdom. In 1945 the Soviet Union took over the eastern part of the country.(Source)

Now onto our story. I found the full text available here.

In this story, there is Little Sister. No one knows her name and everyone calls her Little Sister. She lives in a cottage with her stepmother and stepsister. Little Sister is an orphan and her stepmother makes her do all the work. However Little Sister is always singing or humming to herself and always pleasant. Each day she grows more beautiful and kinder. One day the stepmother realizes that if a suitor was to come to the house he may choose Little Sister over her own daughter. The stepmother and stepsister plot to rid themselves of Little Sister. They decide to send her out in the cold winter weather to look for violets. They lock the door behind her and tell her not to return without the violets.

Little Sister knows she will not find violets in the winter, but searches for them anyway. She walks without a coat through the fierce wind and snow. Finally when she feels she cannot take another step she sees a light high above her. She goes towards and and uses all her courage and energy to climb a tall rock mountain. At the top of it she finds twelve men around a fire. She knows at once that they must be the Month Brothers. She approaches them politely and January asks her what she needs. She asks politely to warm near the fire and then explains about needing violets to return home. Since she is so polite, January tells his brothers they must help Little Sister, so he passes the staff to Brother February. February passes it to March  who passes it to April saying April is the only one who can give violets. Sure enough with each pass of the staff, the weather and trees change like the seasons. When April has the staff the grass grows and the violets grow. April tells Little Sister to pick as many as she would like. She uses her dress to hold them and fills it and runs home.

Stepmother and stepsister are amazed to see her with the violets. They do not thank her, but try to come up with another scheme to get rid of Little Sister. The next night they send her out with a bucket telling her not to come home without fresh strawberries. Again she does not have a coat, but she knows where to go this time. She heads to the Month Brothers. Again she is polite and they help her. The staff is passed to June. June tells her she may pick only five strawberries, which she does and runs home. The stepmother and stepsister greedily eat the strawberries and find them to be the best thing they have ever tasted. They ask her where she got them. The next day the stepsister dresses in all her fur to go out and get more. She finds the Month Brothers and when January asks what she needs she says she will only talk to June and is very rude. The brothers do not like this so January bangs the staff on the ground and there is a blinding blizzard and stepsister cannot see. She tries to find her way home, but cannot. After waiting quite awhile for her daughter stepmother becomes worried and goes to look for her. They were never seen again. 

Little Sister still had to do all the work, but now there was no one to complain, yell or order her around. One day an honest farmer came and asked her to marry him. She did and they lived happily in the cottage sharing the work with  minimal complaining.

Our craft for this story was to color twelve outlines of men as the Month Brothers. Then we made them into a wreath. We used an embroidery hoop wrapped with  four seasons of ribbon.

We taped the men onto it and then added some tissue paper in the center to be their fire.

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures: Cinder-Elly

This week we are going to focus on an American Cinderella story since it is the week of July Fourth. I chose Cinder-Elly by Frances Minters. This is a modern version of the story with Cinder-elly living in New York City. I thought this would be the perfect time to explore the Statue of Liberty, after all we are celebrating America's birthday this week. First a bit about New York City.

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New York City is the most populous city in the United States. It is also the home to the United Nations Headquarters and is described as the cultural capital of the world. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York City making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. It consists of five boroughs which were consolidated into one city in 1898. It traces its roots to a Dutch trading post founded in 1624 and named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings were under British control in 1664 and was renamed New York after King Charles II granted the land to his brother the Duke of York. New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 to 1790. 

Times Square Source

New York has many different world renowned landmarks including the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Broadway and many more. Times Square is the site of the annual New Year's Eve ball drop. Since the New York City Subway runs 24/7 it is one of the most extensive rapid transit systems worldwide. (Source)

Fireworks over New York City (Source)

July Fourth is Independence Day for the United States of America. It commemorates the day in which the Second Continental Congress voted for the Declaration of Independence which happened July 4, 1776. It is often celebrated with parades, barbeques, picnics, concerts and fireworks. Some interesting New York City traditions for Independence Day are:

• Since 1916, Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City supposedly started as a way to settle a dispute among four immigrants as to who was the most patriotic.
• The famous Macy's fireworks display usually held over the East River in New York City has been televised nationwide on NBC since 1976. In 2009, the fireworks display was returned to the Hudson River for the first time since 2000 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's exploration of that river. (Source)

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It is the day that Americans show their patriotic colors with red, white and blue everywhere. So for a change I am going to share our crafts. We honored the Statue of Liberty as well as a few other New York City and State staples. The first thing I have to share that we found is from My Shae Noel. She has an amazing Statue of Liberty packet available for free including one of our crafts. (She also has a great lesson packet on fireworks.)

 

Since Lady Liberty represents democracy and freedom and of the United States, I thought it was the appropriate thing to honor from New York City this week. The first craft we did was a paper plate craft. The pattern and instructions are from My Shae Noel's packet.  Then we also made a torch and a paper crown for Hazel to dress up. Since we only had small green paper, I taped two together, and then added a third one to hide the middle seam.  The torch is just a piece of green paper rolled into a cone and a piece of yellow tissue paper stuck inside. I also had Hazel do some coloring pages.

We had a discussion of the color of a taxi. Hazel rode in her first taxi on the way home from the airport when we came back from Florida, but of course it was not a typical taxi. Oh, well. I guess we should have talked about color of the other things she colored, but all the buildings are apparently blue.

Now onto our story. The story is written in rhyme and has a cartoonish quality to it.

Cinder-Elly lives with her family in New York City. She is the youngest of three girls. Unlike her two sisters, she is kind and neat. She does all the cleaning and even gets her sisters drinks at their request. They however just sit and watch television and play video games and never let Cinder-Elly play. One day all three of them are given tickets to the basketball game. All three want to go, but the two sisters tell Cinder-Elly she cannot go since she is too young and doesn't have clothes to wear, and their mother agrees that she cannot go since there is not enough money to buy three new outfits and since she is the youngest, her sisters should go. 

The night of the game, the sisters go off to the game and Cinder-Elly stays home. While sweeping the steps, a woman comes and talks to Cinder-Elly. Cindy-Elly says she cannot talk to her since she is a stranger, but the woman says she is her godmother and asks if she remembers her from the last time she saw her when she was two or three. The godmother waves her cane and Cinder-Elly's clothes change. Then she gives her a pair of glass sneakers. Then she changes a garbage can into a bicycle for Cinder-Elly to ride to the game. She warns her that she must be home by ten since the magic will be gone then. 

Cinder-Elly goes to the game and has a great time watching Prince Charming play. At one point he misses the ball and Cinder-Elly catches it and gives it back to him. After winning the game, he asks if she will go out for pizza after the game. He says he will go shower and do his hair and meet her. She waits until 9:58, but then leaves walking home since the bike is a garbage game. She however loses one of her glass sneakers which Prince finds. He makes up flyers and hangs them all over the place with his number. The sisters see a flyer and call him. He comes over and they of course cannot fit into the sneaker, then Cinder-Elly comes out and tries it on and pulls out the other one. Then the godmother shows up and waves her cane so Cinder-Elly is dressed in her basketball game clothes. The sisters apologize and Cinder-Elly forgives and everyone lives happily ever after.

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures -- Cinderella from a Different Point of View

This week I am going to share Hazel's favorite version of Cinderella. This is not a multicultural post, but a reminder to always look at who is telling the story and the point of view whether looking at fiction or non-fiction. Today I share Seriously, Cinderella is SO Annoying!...The Cinderella Story as Told by the Wicked Stepmother by Trisha Speed Shaskan.

Since this version is not from a different culture or country, I will not share my normal information about a country or culture. 

This book is narrated by the stepmother. She describes the first time she stepped into Cinderella's house having just married her father. Her father left right away on a business trip just as his new wife and her daughters are arriving. Cinderella explains he does that often. The stepmother looks around the house is disgusted to see how dirty it is. She asks Cinderella about cleaning and all four begin to clean. The stepmother gives each of them a job, but Cinderella keeps finishing her assignments very quickly and keeps talking and talking--telling stories about the mice and birds that help her clean and such tall tales. Even at dinner Cinderella just keeps talking to the point where they have to ask her to be be quiet (or shut up). 

One day Cinderella or Cindy as the stepmother calls her develops a case of laryngitis. This happens to be the day the invitation to the ball that night arrives. The stepmother tells her Cindy she cannot go since she is sick. Of course Cindy goes after the stepfamily leaves for the ball and marries the prince. The stepmother is happy to be rid of the non-stop talking and wishes the prince luck with his wife for when she gets her voice back. Of course she also starts telling tales about a fairy godmother turning a pumpkin into a carriage and such.

As you can see this is a very different take on the whole Cinderella story. I love it because it enables us to talk about point of view and how important it is to know whose view of a story you are hearing (especially history). Another place to look at this information is statistics. As a former math teacher who has taught statistics, I always tell students to look at information about studies to see if they are truly valid. The number in a study is one of the most important things to look at and then which statistics they are giving you. The mean or average and the median or the middle number are two common statistics. They each have their own appropriate places. 

Mean manipulation example:

 If your data is 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 90, the median is 4.   The mean is approximately 16.29. As you can see the 16.29 is greatly influenced by the outlier point of 90.

The mean however is good when you have a large sample size and do not have outliers. It is also important to comment that the mean is useful if the outliers make a difference to your data. 

So this book is a reminder to look at who is telling the story and if you are looking at statistics to look at the information that is given. How many data points are used?  Which statistic is given? If it is the median is that because of outliers and do the outliers affect the overall study?

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures--Cinderella Penguin or Antarctica

So a few days late, but this week our Cinderella story is not really a multicultural one, but it is called Penguin Cinderella or The Little Glass Flipper by Janet Perlman. It is really just the traditional Cinderella story written with penguins as its characters. I thought it would be a fun time to share some facts about Antarctica and the penguins we have seen at Sea World Orlando and New England Aquarium. I will also be using Penguins by Gail Gibbons (Virtual Book Club for Kids author of the month) as a source!

Antarctica is the southernmost continent and contains the South Pole. It is the coldest, driest and windiest continent in the world. It also has the highest elevation. It is considered a desert due to the minimal amount of precipitation. The temperature has reached −129 °F. There are no permanent human residents, but many people reside there throughout the year at research stations. About 98% of Antarctica is covered by a sheet of ice averaging 1 mile thick.

Source

Antarctica is home to many species of penguins as well as blue whales, orcas, colossal squids and fur seals. We will focus on the penguins due to the book being based on penguins. The Emperor Penguin is the only penguin that mates in the winter in Antarctica. The Adelie Penguin breeds farther south than any other penguin. The Rockhopper Penguin has distinctive feathers around the eyes. (Source)

Rockhopper Penguin at Sea World

There are seventeen different kinds of penguins. The smallest is the Little Blue Penguin (also called the Fairy Penguin) and the largest is the Emperor Penguin. All penguins have black or bluish-gray backs and white bellies. They all have the same basic body shape and characteristics.

Little Blue Penguins at New England Aquarium

The Adelie and Emperor Penguins never leave Antarctica. Others live in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, South America, and the Galapagos and other islands. 

King Penguins at Sea World

All penguins are birds, but they cannot fly. Over time their wings changed into flippers to aid in swimming and hunting for their food. They are excellent swimmers and divers. Larger penguins can swim faster than 25 miles an hour. Groups of penguins may stay in the water for weeks at a time. Their natural enemies are fur and leopard seals, sea lions, sharks and orcas (killer whales). 

Swimming Penguin at Sea World

Once a year many penguins come together and form colonies called rookeries. This is the time they mate and raise their young. At this time the penguins make loud noises, but most of the time they are quiet. The mating process is different for the different species. I think the most the commonly known mating process is the Emperor Penguin's. The Emperor (and King) Penguins only lay one egg. The female quickly passes it over to the male and he carries it at the top of his feet . The egg is kept warm by a flap on his belly called the brood pouch. During the incubation time the female swims out to sea to feed. The male Emperor Penguins gather together to stay warm. They rotate constantly to the inside and outside of the group so all are able to stay warm. During this time the males do not eat and can lose up to 45 percent of their body weight. It takes 65 days for the egg to hatch. The female returns around this time and she tucks the chick under her brood pouch. The male then goes out to sea to feed. The chick is grey and covered with soft down. The mother feeds the chick by regurgitating food for it. When the father returns, both parents take turns feeding and keeping the chick warm. When the chicks are large enough, they gather in groups called creches. They huddle together to stay warm. When the chicks are three to ten months old they begin to lose their gray down and grow their adult feathers. At this stage they are called fledglings. (Source: Penguins by Gail Gibbons)

Penguins at both Sea World and New England Aquarium

Before going into the book, I want to share our experience on the Antarctica ride at Sea World. Now the first day we went to Sea World, this new exhibit had a two hour wait. With a four-year-old and twin five-year-olds with us, we did not wait two hours. Hazel and I went back for a second day in the rain and the wait was only fifteen minutes. We did wait this time and it was worth the fifteen minutes. I am not sure I feel it would be worth a two hour wait. When you get in the first room you see a short film about a penguin hatching from the egg. You then follow this penguin chick through his life as he grows up a bit. The next room is where you decide which ride you want. There is a mild ride and a wilder ride. We went on the mild one. From what I could tell, the wilder one turned more and bumped around a bit more. The ride is suppose to give you the sense of what life is like in Antarctica. There is even a cold spot supposedly, but the only place we felt cold was when we were in the penguin exhibits.

Pictures from the ride including wet Hazel on it

During the ride you see more short films about the life of the penguin including a blizzard hitting. Then when the ride is over you are literally only a couple of feet away from live penguins. There are places to see them underwater and places to seem them above. Sometimes there was a glass wall between you and other times it was a plastic fencing that did not go all the way to the top. It was so neat. This to me was the best part of the whole ride.

Pictures from Sea World

Now onto our story. So in this story Cinderella is a penguin. She is a good penguin. In the book she has gold hair. Her stepmother and stepsisters are also penguins. The stepsisters get to wear beautiful clothes and sleep in luxurious beds. Cinderella is given rags and sleeps in the cold cellar on a shelf next to some tin plates. Cinderella does all the housework including picking up after her stepsisters.

Our Penguin Puppet Show

One day an invitation arrives to the Penguin Prince's Costume Ball. The stepsisters have new costumes made and spend much time looking at themselves in the mirror. Cinderella would like to go, but her stepfamily just laughs at her saying the prince would never want to meet someone like her. The day of the ball Cinderella helps the stepsisters get ready and then without a thank you or goodbye their carriage leaves and Cinderella is left alone. She begins to cry and the little blue fairy penguin comes and asks Cinderella why she is crying. She tells her to go get a pumpkin so she can go to the ball. (Ok, first spot that we know this story does not take place in Antarctica since pumpkins cannot grow there.) The fairy turns it into a beautiful coach. Then she finds six mice carrying a hunk of cheese (we only had three). She turns the mice into horses and the cheese into the coachman. Then she turns Cinderella's clothes into a beautiful gown and glass flippers. (We used our Sea World Animal Rescue Barbie doll flippers.) Cinderella goes to the ball with the warning that she must leave by midnight. She dances all night with the Prince Penguin and all of a sudden it is almost midnight. She runs off and leaves behind one of the glass flippers. The prince will only marry the penguin whose flipper fits in the glass flipper. Everyone tries it on, but the glass flipper is too small. Then Cinderella gets her turn and of course it fits. She marries the prince and they live happily ever after.

We made the penguin puppets and acted out the story with some props. The puppets are just construction paper and googly eyes glued to popsicle sticks. We did not dress them or give them hair, but kept them more natural or how we saw them at Sea World.

Fairy Tales in Different Culture--Disney World's Cinderella

Well, I have been a bit quiet the past week because we traveled to Florida to go to Disney World and Sea World. I took the week to be with my family and was computer free. Since we just got back Friday night and I'm still settling back home, I thought I would share our Cinderella pictures from our trip. Yes, Hazel met almost all the princesses and several of them a few times. 

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We were not able to get a reservation at Cinderella's Royal Table (the restaurant in Cinderella's Castle), however I did get us a reservation for the Cinderella's Happily Ever After Dinner at the 1900 Park Fare in  Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa.

Originally my parents were going to go with us, however at somewhat last minute they canceled. We invited Hazel's best friend from school and his family. His mother and he were able to come with us and they stayed for a portion of the week. They really wanted to go to Epcot and I decided to take Hazel too and managed to get a reservation for the Storybook Princess Lunch at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in Norway of Epcot's World Showcase for Saturday, so the four of us enjoyed a lunch hosted by Belle and with Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora, and Ariel at it. So on Saturday we had two chances to meet Cinderella. Then we did not see her until we went to the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday.

First a bit of history about Disney World. Disney World is an entertainment resort in Florida. It was opened October 1, 1971. Walt Disney wanted to give the Eastern United States a park similar to the one he opened in California in 1955. It originally was meant to be a supplement to Disneyland (in California). Walt Disney disliked the businesses that popped up around Disneyland and wanted to control more of the area. Market studies also showed that only 5% of the visitors to Disneyland came from the East coast where 75% of the population of the country lived. He chose the Orlando area since it had good roadways and an airport close by. Using dummy corporations he managed to purchase 27,443 acres of land. Many were happy to sell the swamp land they owned.  In 1965 the true owner was leaked to the Orlando Sentinel.  Disney held a press conference sharing his plans including the plans for EPCOT--a futuristic planned city. Walt Disney died of lung cancer in 1966.

In 1967 his business partner and brother, Roy O. Disney took over and eventually got the rights for a district that included a two towns. This area is now called Lake Buena Vista. The only places this land would be governed by the county and state was in property taxes and elevator inspections. 

The roads and drainage for the Magic Kingdom were built very quickly and several of the resorts were completed before the opening in 1971. The plans for the futuristic planned city were pushed aside after Walt Disney's death. However the idea evolved into the Epcot Center or Epcot. Also the town Celebration was later developed in 1994. (Source) We actually spent an afternoon in Celebration walking around the downtown area. It has 1950's feel to it and is beautiful and friendly.

Now onto our trip. We stayed at our time share, Vacation Village at the Parkway. The developer of the time share saw that someone was buying all the land around his and refused to sell. Now Disney is all around it. It is a wonderful place to stay without being in a Disney Resort. Our first Cinderella sighting was at the lunch in Epcot.

It was a quick visit, but a very fun lunch. Next Hazel and I took the monorail to the Grand Floridian and planned on meeting Daddy for dinner. Daddy however got lost driving to the Grand Floridian, so he got there very late. We however enjoyed seeing the characters of the story. The first thing we saw was a dance which Cinderella and Prince Charming did once or twice an hour. Sorry for the picture quality. The room was dark and we were a bit far away from the dance floor.

Then we waited for some characters to come before heading to the buffet. Cinderella came first and was closely followed by Prince Charming.

Hazel was actually not afraid of Prince Charming (unlike Aladdin). She posed for several pictures with him. Cinderella was also impressed with her dress having Cinderella's picture all over it. I made this dress for her. We had a short break so we headed to the buffet and got some food for Hazel and some strawberry soup for us to share. It was delicious!! Then Lady Tremaine came by. After a bit of confusion about Ducky and Daddy (don't ask), we had a nice conversation with her and got a picture and autograph.

During the dance we saw a bit of the personalities of the stepsisters and stepmother. The big question we had was are they going to be nice or mean. Anastasia seemed to still lack manners. She liked to shout in the restaurant, but was very fun. Drizella did not like children, but did pose for pictures and give autographs. Both stepsisters asked why her face was not on Hazel's dress. I believe it was Drizella who said everyone had trouble finding the fabric with her face on it since it always sells out so quickly.

 Anastasia was told that the little boy at the table next to us considered her his favorite, so she asked him to marry her. He refused since he was too young.

Steve finally arrived to see Drizella. After we saw all of them, there was another dance. Lady Tremaine commented that it was good to see Daddy made it. We had a lovely time and Hazel was beside herself. Plus we loved the strawberry soup and will definitely have to try to find the recipe. I think this one will be our first try. Hazel managed to fill her first autograph book by this time. It did not have many pages since it was one of the ones you could put a picture on one side and they signed the other side. Plus we did a character breakfast as well.

On Sunday we went to Sea World and had a visit with a friend of mine from high school and his family. Monday we went to the Animal Kingdom. Tuesday we had breakfast with the time share and then spent time in the pool and headed to Celebration. Wednesday we went to the Magic Kingdom. This was Hazel's favorite! Our first stop was in Town Square Theater to visit the princesses. It was the only place you could see Rapunzel. Also there was Aurora and Cinderella. Both of which we had already seen twice, but she still wanted to see them again. Then we went off to see more and check out the castle. We spent the day checking out princesses. We managed to see Belle and Ariel (this time as a mermaid) as well as Tiana and Merida. Plus Hazel saw Mary Poppins. We also rode on Prince Charming's Regal Carousel (by this time we had been caught in the pouring rain and it showed).

Our plan for lunch was to go to Be Our Guest Restaurant which is at Belle and the Beast's castle. However the wait was two hours and we knew the rain was coming, so we did not want to waste our time. We did catch the Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade at 3 p.m. There was a Cinderella float as well as some of the characters ahead of it.

Hazel was very excited to see the mice. We did not see the Fairy Godmother at the castle, but I got a picture of her on the float.

Hazel's goal had been to stay up for the fireworks, however we all got tired and wet, so we left around 8 p.m. The fireworks were at 10 with the electric parade at 9. Luckily we saw Dream-Along with Mickey Show that included some fireworks (as well as the princesses).  One of the major disappointments for me was that all the characters now have assigned places to meet people. Apparently some of the adults started tripping them when they walked around so they had to do this instead for the safety of the employees. How sad that adults would ruin something that is suppose to be fun for kids. I'll share more about our trip in the future! Our next Cinderella story will be on Sunday since next week is the Virtual Book Club for Kids week.