The Persian Cinderella

When Rebecca showed up today she was excited about two things in this particular order: 1. The new earrings she's going to be getting soon, and 2. Her weekend visit to the shark museum with a friend.  We chatted a bit about both of those things and more, then got down to our routine.

We looked over her homework first.  I'd given her a book by Patricia Polacco to read entitled The Bee Tree and written down some questions for her to answer about the book:

We went over her communication journal:

And I wrote her a note back

She took her spelling test:

 Then we moved along to poetry.  Each week I ask Rebecca to choose two or three of her favorite poems to read or recite by heart.  This week she chose this one to begin, and we noticed that we hadn't actually finished it last month.  We ran across a new word for us both, quaff.  Be honest, do you know what that means?  No?  I didn't either.  It means to drink heartily...tell everyone you know because surely they don't know the meaning either.

 Then we moved along to a new poem that I copied out of a poetry book I use often with Rebecca:

The poems are fantastic and use wildly wonderful and colorful vocabulary.  Today we started the first eight lines of a poem called "The Tickle".  We highlighted the rhyming words, like always.  The poem "The Tickle" reminded Rebecca that she hates to be tickled, but that her grandmother loves massages.  It also prompted her to recall last summer when her grandmother gave her two euro in exchange for a foot massage.  "That's pretty good money for just a little bit of work," I said.  "Actually it was a lot of work," she replied, "but she is my grandma and she buys me a lot of things, so with all of that I only took two euro."  "Ah, the grandma discount," I smiled.

 I needed a couple of minutes to write out Rebecca's spelling list to practice during the week, so I gave her the choice of either coloring "The Tickle" illustrations or drawing something.  She chose to doodle, and this is what she came up with in less than five minutes.

A fabulous 3-D peacock

I finished her spelling list and we began our book of the day: The Persian Cinderella by Shirley Climo. (note: I would HIGHLY recommend this and other versions of the Cinderella story by Climo--the Persian version is teeming with subtle cultural nuances and vibrant colors...it really is a treat).  At first Rebecca and I took turns reading the pages of the story, but when it was clear that she was becoming a bit tired of reading, I read aloud the remaining pages. While reading we noted new vocabulary words and phrases:

There are many similarities and differences between the classic Cinderella story and the Persian version.  One notable difference in Climo's version is that it is not a glass slipper that Settareh, or Cinderella loses, but a diamond anklet.  I thought a great craft to go along with the story would be for Rebecca to make a Persian-inspired jewelry box.  So that's what we did.

She painted the wooden box with watercolors

and referenced the illustrations for design inspiration

 She thought about painting on paper and then cutting and pasting the pictures onto the wooden box, but in the end decided against it.  She opted instead to paint and draw directly on the box.

While working on a mountain she asked, "Can you help me?" At first I declined, but couldn't help thinking that a border would really look great on her Persian jewelry box...so it ultimately became a team project.

I drew out a thin border:

 Then measured, cut, and pasted it while she continued to work on her Persian-inspired designs:

This was the final product:

Gorgeous, if I do say so myself.

When we were cleaning up all of our crafting supplies Rebecca asked, "Can I take it home?"
"Of course!" I shrieked, "what do you think we did all of this work for?!"  She smiled and mumbled, "I love coming here."  Four words every teacher wants to here.