Folktales, fairytales, myths and legends comprise a key unit of literary study for 3rd graders. While this is not the grade I am teaching now, I would love to spend some lessons focusing on not only stories but the types of characters that are commonly found in them. Along with Western figures like trolls, witches, princes and princesses, I’d use scenes from “Spirited Away” to show students kamikakushi, Yubaba, the river spirit, and other entities from Japanese myths and folklore. There is a scene early on in the film, when Chihiro first enters the spirit world, where a parade of creatures enters the bath house. I could imagine students choosing one they were interested in, and doing some research to see what figures or stories they were based on (Miyazaki took some liberties in depicting many of them.)
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