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CNY
Grants for Arts in Education - art$TART
Van
Duyn Elementary and Open Hand Theater
Students
operate puppets of Vasilisa
and her mother.
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Students
explored cultures from around
the world through the study
of mask and puppet theater in
the fairy tale "Cinderella".
The project was a collaboration
among Open Hand Theater, the
Syracuse City School District
and the Soling Program of Syracuse
University. S.U. students who
were taking a course on “The
Art of Community” participated.
The
arts program was completely
integrated and for three months
the third grade curriculum was
driven by this project. The
student enthusiasm and excitement
invigorated the learning process.
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Starting with the oldest known
version (from China), each
week we traveled around the
globe following a family of
stories that we know as “Cinderella.”
In each country we explored
aspects of the local culture,
musical instruments and music,
puppetry, geography, and physical
environment.
Students prepared
a Thinking Map (a visual organizational
and categorizing tool that
Van Duyn School has been trained
in) identifying character
traits within the folk tales.
They also wrote an original
piece comparing and contrasting
versions of the story.
Starting
with simple shadow puppets,
the puppetry and theater arts
skills developed, culminating
with work on their final pageant
production of a Russian variant
“Vasilisa the Beautiful”.
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The hounds of death come
for Vasilisa's mother |
The wicked stepsisters |
The
Story: After Vasilisa's mother
dies, her father marries a woman
who has two daughters. They
treat Vasilisa badly and make
her do all the work, but the
memory of her mother helps Vasilisa.
While her father is away, her
stepmother and sisters banish
Vasilisa to the forest where
the feared witch Baba Yaga lives.
After imposing many trials,
Baba Yaga eventually helps her.
The wicked stepsisters are banished,
and eventually Vasilisa marries
the czar.
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The
oral story telling, reading,
comparing and exploring of
the different story variations
fuelled an active language
arts program. The third grade
world studies came alive as
we followed some of the ancient
trading and migration routes,
following and watching the
story and culture adapt and
change. Parents were invited
to participate at the beginning
of the project and again at
the end.
The
Van Duyn audience watches
"Vasilisa the Beautiful."
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