VBCfK: The Rain Came Down

Here is a quick educational activity to go along with David Shannon's book, The Rain Came Down. David Shannon is the author of the month for the Virtual Book Club for Kids. Last week we shared a simple activity to go with Duck on a Bike.

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures--Adelita

In preparation of Cinco de Mayo, we thought we would feature the Cinderella stories from Mexico. The first this week. So today we will "travel" to Mexico. Since I have been to Puerto Penasco, Mexico, I will share a few of the pictures I have from my trip.

Mexico is rich with history. Pre-European contact Mexico had many advanced cultures like the Aztecs, the Mayans. In 1521 Spain conquered what is now Mexico and colonized it calling it New Spain. The territory became Mexico in 1821 following its independence. It took its name from its capital city, Mexico City. Mexico City is built on top of the ancient Aztec capital México-Tenochtitlan. The official name of Mexico has changed with government changes. It is now Estados Unidos Mexicanos which translates to the United Mexican States.

Mexico is the fifth largest country in the Americas and the thirteenth largest independent country in the world. It is the eleventh most populous country and is the most populous Spanish-speaking country. It comprises of 31 states and a Federal District (the capital city). Mexico is the 23rd largest tourism based income in the world. The vast number of tourists come from the United States and Canada. (Source)

Now onto our story! This week we are sharing Tomie dePaola's Adelita.  This book has Spanish phrases throughout it with the English translation following the phrase. At the back of the book, there is a list of all the Spanish used and their meanings and pronunciations. This is a story based on the Cinderella story, but is not an original one to the region.

The story begins describing the father and the mother, Adela, and Adela telling the father they are going to have a baby. He sends for the woman who took care of him as a child and has been with his family since she was a girl. Her name is Esperanza. Adela becomes ill following childbirth and only gets to hold her daughter once before dying. The father names the baby Adelita after her mother. Adelita grows into a beautiful young woman under the care of Esperanza and her father. They both love her very much.

Coloring Pages came from Coloring.WS

One day the father announces he is going to remarry. He brings the woman and her two daughters to meet Adelita and Esperanza. Esperanza does not like them immediately, but Adelita is happy for her father. Adelita has to share her father now, but does not mind since he seems happy. Unfortunately he soon dies and Adelita is left an orphan. Her stepmother begins to show her true colors and jealousy over Adelita. She moves her from her beautiful bedroom to a room in the attic, and she now only is given hand-me-downs for clothes. The stepsisters are also mean to her. Adelita spends much of her time in the kitchen with Esperanza. 

One day the stepmother comes into the kitchen to say she will no longer keep Esperanza since she is spending too much on the household and Adelita can do the work since she is always helping anyway. Esperanza and Adelita beg her not to send Esperanza away, but she does. Adelita is saddened and now must do all the hard work herself. One day at breakfast the stepmother announces they have been invited to a fiesta at the Gordillo's ranch. The girls are very excited since they both would like to marry Javier Gordillo. Adelita asks if she may go as well since she and Javier were childhood friends. She is told she would be an embarrassment to the family and she must stay home. She helps the stepsisters prepare for the party and watches the family leave.

Adelita is weeping in the kitchen when she hears a soft knock on the door. It is Esperanza. She had a dream about Adelita not being allowed to go to the fiesta and has come to help. She takes her to the storeroom and shows her a trunk of her mother's things. They find a beautiful white dress and a red rebozo. Adelita quickly washes and dresses and Esperanza braids her hair and puts it up with ribbons and flowers. Then they use the cart Esperanza borrowed to take her to get there.

Adelita turns heads when she arrives. Senor Gordillo comes to meet her and asks who she is. She tells him she is in disguise and to call her Cenicienta, Cinderella. Javier takes one look and falls in love with her. They dance and talk all night. When he expresses his love to her Adelita becomes nervous and runs away. The next day all the stepmother and stepsisters can talk about is the mysterious Cenicienta at the fiesta. The stepmother tells them Javier is going to go house to house to look for her so her daughters have another chance to impress him. Before going to help her stepsisters, Adelita runs to her room and hangs her mother's rebozo out of the attic window. 

Javier sees the rebozo and runs to the house asking where she is. The stepmother calls in the stepsisters and Javier says they are not the one he means. The stepmother says they are the only ones there, but then a voice form behind says there is one more. Adelita has changed into her mother's dress and rebozo again and comes down the stairs. She tells Javier who she is and of course he remembers his childhood friend. He asks her to marry him and she says since she is an orphan he should ask her stepmother. Her stepmother gives her permission and they are married. Esperanza comes to take care of them as she always had. Everyone is happy.


And that is the first of our two Mexican Cinderella stories. I think I gave our peg doll a bit too much hair. Oh, well.

Sharing Saturday 13-16

What a week this has been. Between the Boston Marathon bombing and school vacation week our week has been anything but normal. We live in the Greater Boston area so the bombing was a bit too close for comfort. However, I did have time to visit the amazing posts from last week's Sharing Saturday. If you have not checked them out yet, you should. I was pinning and being inspired by many of them!! There were great recipes, crafts, science experiments, lessons, activities, playdate ideas and so much more! It was hard to choose features or should I say limit the number of features I chose. Speaking of features, make sure you check out my co-host's features at Having Fun at Chelle's House! We always have different ones. Now onto my features. This week I get to present the Most Clicked!! Our most clicked last week came from Gift of Curiosity with Super Sparkly Sensory Bags. I know Hazel would love to make one of these. I think the next rainy day we will!

Next are a few of the great ideas to help children learn about and celebrate Earth Day. (There were many more so go check them all out!)

1) From My Nearest and Dearest: 6 Earth Day Activities for Little Ones (Some great ideas for even the youngest ones!)
2) From Toddling in the Fast Lane: Recycled Tea Set (Love this idea and it is perfect for play and uses recycled items!)
3) From We Made That: Tin Can Planters (So pretty, simple and Earth friendly!)
4) From Learning and Growing the Piwi Way: Save the Monarchs (I had just been reading about the decline in the butterfly numbers and was thinking about adding some more butterfly friendly plants--love getting the little ones involved!)
5) From Discovering the World Through My Son's Eyes: Making Your Own Cool Art Paper (Something I hope to try when Hazel is a bit older!)

Plus I had to mention a few of my other favorites. Just because I loved them and found them inspiring and fun!

A Few of My Favorites

1) From Science Sparks: Challenge and Discover: Bridge Building (A new monthly feature of an idea to explore and try something with and then link up. As a former geometry teacher, I know we looked at bridge structure in my classes and even had a similar challenge of building bridges from toothpicks. Oh, and there is still time to explore and link up!!)
2) From Buggy and Buddy: Science for Kids: Exploring Sound with a Hanger and String (This sounds so neat--I want to try it and I guess I'll let Hazel try too!)
3) From Rubberboots and Elf Shoes: Mr. Klimt Trees -- Kindergarten Style (I love these and they are so pretty!)

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! If you were one of the ones picked as a feature here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

My Week in Review: This week I did not post as much as usual. I shared some butterfly crafts, our Virtual Book Club for Kids post of Duck on a Bike, our vacation week outdoor post on a class at Drumlin Farm and gardening and an Alaskan Cinderella story.

 

Now for This Week's Party 
 
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3) Post the newly updated button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

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Fairy Tales in Different Cultures--The Salmon Princess

I'm happy to say I finally got around to doing my fairy tale post for this week. This week we are traveling to Alaska. I picked this story this week since Monday was Patriots' Day here in Massachusetts. Patriots' Day is a day to remember the Battles of Lexington and Concord which were on April 19, 1775 and were the start of the American Revolution. Now in Massachusetts it is celebrated the third Monday in April and there is a re-enactment of the Battle of Lexington in Lexington and the Boston Marathon is run. Plus school vacation week is always the week of Patriots' Day here in Massachusetts. I figured since the holiday represents the start of the fight for the United States to become a country it would make sense to share one of the versions from the United States and since I own this copy (I couldn't get it from any of the libraries here), I went with it. This is one of the stories that was definitely adapted for the area and not originally from there.

Source

A bit about Alaska. Alaska is the largest state of the fifty states but is the fourth least populous. It was purchased from Russia for $7.2 million or about two cents per acre in 1867 and became the 49th state in 1959.

To see the size of Alaska Source

Alaska has many islands as part of its state. Approximately 65% of Alaska's land is owned and managed by the U.S. Federal Government. The southeast region of Alaska is the only region where the daytime high temperature is above freezing during the winter. Alaska has a rich history and culture including the Native Americans. I am not going to go into all of that here. Alaska's industry is domineered by oil, natural gas and fishing industries. It is also known as The Final Frontier. (Source)

Now onto our story. Today we are looking at The Salmon Princess by Mindy Dwyer. In this story there is a fisherman who lives with his wife and daughter. The daughter is named Cinder for the spark in her grey eyes and her red flaming hair. His wife and daughter are in charge of cleaning and smoking the salmon for them to sell. The mother teaches their daughter how to do it and they love to sing old songs together while doing it. 

Coloring Page available at Kidzone

One winter the mother dies due to illness. The father remarries and the new wife has two sons who help with the fishing, but the new wife refuses to dirty her hands with the fish so the daughter is left to do the work. Since the new wife is mean, the daughter does not completely mind until one day the father announces a festival on the next island and the stepmother says Cinder cannot go since there is so much fish to clean (after all now they have three fishermen and only one person cleaning and smoking). Cinder was upset when the family left her behind, but there was a lot of fish. While she was in her favorite place under a cedar tree where she always went to do her work, an eagle flew over head and dropped something. Cinder thought it was a fish, but when it came to the ground she realized it was a beautiful dress that looked like it was made out of threads from the moon. The eagle circled around one more time to tell her that she must return the dress before the sun came up since the fibers would be invisible in the light of the sun. 

Cinder put on the dress and wished she had nice shoes, but since she did not she was glad the dress covered her boots. At the festival she sold some of her smoked salmon and used the money to buy as many raffle tickets as she could. She wanted to win the grand prize of silver bars, so she could get away from all the work. Then she danced with a nice young man. They danced until the sun was about to come up at which she ran off remembering the bird's warning. He chased after her. Her boot got stuck in a net and she dropped her raffle tickets and lost her boot, but jumped in her family's small boat and rowed back home. The nice young man found the boot and raffle tickets, but did not know how to find her. Everyone around this area wore similar boots as these. Then when one of her raffle tickets was the winner he vowed to find her within the 24 hours she had to claim the prize. 

State Flower is Forget Me Not: Coloring Page available at Kidzone

He searched all the neighboring islands and then a bird guided him to her family's dock. The brothers tried to lock her in the smoke house so they could claim her prize to get a new fishing boat, but the young man pursued on finding her and let her out. He recognized her right away and they got married. Now the young man was the son of the owner of Salmon King which Cinder said made him the Salmon Prince. He said she was his Cinderella and when they got married she became the Salmon Princess. They lived further north away from the salmon industry until the Salmon Prince inherited his father's business. 

So that is the story of the Salmon Princess or the Alaskan Cinderella. I know I would love to see Alaska some day. I hope to take Hazel there eventually.

School Vacation Week--Welcome Spring!

So on top of Monday's horrible tragedy, it is school vacation week here and spring has definitely sprung. We have not had many crafts to post since our focus has been on getting outside and at night I have been processing all that has happened (and working on her knitted farm playmat which is almost finished!!). I thought I would share a few pictures from our activities this week. (I know I still haven't done my Cinderella post this week, but am working on it!)

On Monday our day was spent going to the doctor's office--yes Hazel still has a cold and getting Hazel's dance class photo taken. A busy tiring day, but not much to show for it.

On Tuesday Hazel took a class at Drumlin Farm with her best friend from school. Now her friend's mom and I started with them, but parents were not suppose to be there. I didn't get many pictures since I explained to Hazel that moms were not allowed and she was all right with it, her friend however did not feel the same so his mom got a few pictures for me. I went off to the gift shop and then checked out the animals so I would know if we wanted to see them all later and then found a quiet place to sit and knit. The class was on cold-blooded animals so they were ponding a bit.

After their class ended we had a picnic lunch and then went to check out all the animals including the 12-day-old piglets. Hazel and her friend found a door open to an empty chicken coop, so they hopped in and his mom took a picture of them caged.

Then we did Hazel's favorite thing--the hay ride.

Then we bought farm fresh eggs and went to the gift shop. I promised Hazel she could get two gifts since she had been so good at the class without me. This class was meant to be a test run for both of them to see how they would do with each other and not us. Hazel passed and her friend did not (but he did not have a good night the night before so that might be why). While in the gift shop I bought more bird seed as well so his mom went to get the car instead of us carrying the huge bags the distance to the parking lot. (Drumlin Farm is a Mass Audubon location.)

Near the gift shop was one of the few places you can eat due to the working farm and health violations, so the kids enjoyed their M&M's from lunch while we waited.

Today was one of those wonderful spring days that got close to 70 without quite reaching it. We had to take the cats to the groomers and run a few errands, but we spent the afternoon outside. First we went to check on the flowers (see collage near top) and vegetables we planted. We watered some and noticed the English daisy looked dug up so we replanted it and gave it lots of water. Then Hazel watered her pansies. Then we headed to her garden to check on the lettuce--looks like the rabbit found it and snap peas and pansies. The basil was planted a bit too early, so we will have to get more. Oh, and Hazel watered the tomato plants that are in the garage still since it is over a month too early to plant them outside here. Then it was time to play!

Hazel took a little rest on her bench at the swingset and then went on the swings. A neighbor across the street brought her three-year-old granddaughter over since her granddaughter wanted to meet Hazel and they played for a bit. Overall it was a fun day!

For those looking to help with the horrific tragedy in Boston, CNN has a good list of ways anyone can help.