How Can You Weave Creativity into Literacy

First have a mystery box with a glass object inside or maybe a shoe. Give students clues until they guess the fairy tale Cinderella. With a mystery box, I hide something inside and tell the students that they can ask 10 yes/no questions and after that they can guess the object. A yes or no question could be something like: Is it living, is it red, is it outside, etc.?

Next, show some clips of the Cinderella story. I like these.

After you discuss a clip or two of the Disney Cinderella cartoon movie, you can introduce the project of building a shoe to wear to a fancy ball. At my school, we have a “Daddy Daughter Dance” and a “Mother Son Dance”. When these occasions arise, it provides another connection. It is important that you emphasize that the shoe needs to be life size. Children need to be able to fit the shoe onto their foot.

You will end up with a variety of shoe designs. Children are able to design and finish in about two one hour sessions. I give them two colors of paper to start with and let them add different colors from my scrap box. Here are some simple examples that the children made.