Rumpelstiltskin

                                                                                                        Study Guide

               Walter Crane's illustration of "Rumpelstilzchen" from Household Stories from the Collection of the Brothers Grimm, 1886

The Story of Rumpelstiltskin seems to lend itself perfectly for a cross-curriculum study guide. Many of the ideas for the following lessons came from my friends on the Storytell Listserve, the participants at the Sharing the Fire Conference, the Internet, and some of my own creations. Whenever possible I try to acknowledge where the ideas sprang forth. If you would like to submit an idea, please contact Marilyn Kinsella and I will see if it fits in to this page. The ideas below are only meant to be used sparingly. I will reiterate my previous remarks - Kids are savvy  to "using" a story to get into a lesson.

Fellow tellers, feel free to copy and use some are all of  these suggestions for your own study guide. If you contact me, I will e-mail you, as an attachment, the study guide I give to teachers. You may copy the study guide onto your Word Document. Change, add, and delete to make it yours and then save it. Now, for your next study guide you can use the same file - change, add, delete...and rename the file. Then, "save as." You will save not only the first study guide but the second as well. That way you already have the basic set-up for this type of study guide in Word. You will not need to set it up yourself. If you prefer to set it up yourself, the directions for this type of study guide is at Study Guides - forms toward the bottom of the page.

Summary of Rumpelstiltskin:

A young woman wants to marry the King, but is told that first she must spin straw into gold or die. A funny trickster (Rumpelstiltskin) agrees to do it, only if she promises her first born child. He does, and she marries the King. When she gives birth to a child, R comes back and demands the child for payment. Since he loves to play games, he says that the Queen may keep the child, if she can guess his name in three days. He comes back three times to ask her what his name is. In the meantime the King inadvertently discovers the man in the woods who is saying his name. The Kings rushes home to tell the Queen. When R returns the third time, she says his name and he disappears forever.

Comprehension Questions:

These really depend on which version the teller relates. I have based these on my version that can be found at Rumpelstiltskin.

Specific questions

Discussion questions with no right or wrong answers:

Versions of Rumpelstiltskin on line:

Rumpelstiltskin   My version with lots of participation for young audiences

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Estates/4967/rumpel.html The original Grimm's version

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/rumpelstiltskin/  Annotated version

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0500.html   A list of many versions from other countries followed by the stories themselves

http://suzyred.com/readerstheater.html  A readers' theatre version

http://www.fictionteachers.com/classroomtheater/rumple.html  A fractured version suitable for small play or readers' theatre.

                                                                                State curriculum standards.

These are based on Illinois Standards for Early Elementary grades. For standards from other US States go to http://www.statestandards.com/   These standards are listed for telling the story, asking questions, and vocabulary work only. Each page of lesson plans has additional standards.

STATE GOAL 2:  Read and understand literature representative of various societies, eras and ideas. Although these goals were written specifically for reading, they also apply to listening to a story.

STATE GOAL 4:  Listen and speak effectively in a variety of situations.

Why This Goal Is Important:  Of all the language arts, listening and speaking are those most often used on a daily basis at home, school and work or in the community.  Skill in speaking is universally recognized as a primary indicator of a person’s knowledge, skill and credibility.  In person, by phone or through video, good listening and speaking skills are essential to sending, receiving and understanding messages.  To understand messages spoken by others, students must be able to listen carefully, using specific techniques to clarify what they have heard.  For speaking properly and making messages understood, grammar, sentence structure, tone, expression and emphasis must be part of students’ repertoires.

                                                                                                               Vocabulary

                              folktale                            castle                                  tower

                              Grimm                             spun gold                          straw

                               trickster                        spinning wheel                  riddles

Here is novel idea to use for learning vocabulary or the alphabet:

http://www.geocities.com/ljacoby_2000/Rumpelstiltskin/rump.html  A "Cyber Dictionary" idea for K-2

Lesson Plans:      A cross-curriculum guide for lessons from Rumpelstiltskin

                                                                           Interesting Tidbits on ole Rumpie...

                                                                                     References for Books:

teacher/teller