Teacher’s Resource Package
Step Ahead Program
Pre-visit Activities
It is helpful for your students to be prepared for their museum visit. Many students have not been to a museum
before, and are unsure what to expect. They will get more out of their visit if you are able to introduce the
topic of shoes, some basic vocabulary, and our behaviour expectations prior to their visit.
1. Why Shoes?
Lead a class discussion about why people wear shoes. Record the reasons on a list or graphic organizer.
Answers will fall into categories like protection from harm (sharp objects like rock, nails or glass), protection
from weather (to keep feet dry, warm, cool), special activities (sports, dance), jobs (construction worker,
firefighter), celebratory occasions (birthday parties, weddings) and fashion (to look cool, to have the latest
thing, to be in style).
Other answers we’ve received to this question include: ‘so you can go to school’, ‘to keep your socks clean’,
or ‘in case you have a fire drill’! any funny ones or additions to above?
2. Shoe Words
Make sure your students know this basic shoe vocabulary.
Heel - A solid raised base or support attached to the sole of the shoe or boot under the back part of the foot.
Sandal - A sole with straps to hold it on the foot.
Shoe - Any kind of external covering for the foot which does not extend beyond the ankle and has a separate
sole.
Sole - The bottom of a shoe or boot, exclusive of the heel.
Tread - The widest part of a sole which comes in contact with the ground. Also, the pattern on the bottom of a
sole.
Upper - The parts of a shoe or boot above the sole.
3. Museum Manners
Please discuss our Museum Manners with your students prior to your visit:
• We walk slowly. We speak quietly.
• We stay in a group with our leader.
• We take turns speaking by putting up our hands.
• “Museum hands” stay behind our backs, at our sides or
in our pockets.
• Sometimes we kneel down so that people behind us can
see.
• We touch Museum objects when our tour leaders invite
us, and are careful when we touch.
• We use the stairs, not the elevator.
Post-visit Activities
Post-visit activities reinforce and build on what students have learned at the Museum, enhancing their
experience. Activities can be adapted for grade level.
1. Thanks!
The sponsors of our Step Ahead program love to see that the program is well-received and making a
difference. We would be grateful if you could guide your class to send thanks from the class for their visit to
the Bata Shoe Museum. Draw pictures, write letters, or collaborate on a group effort. Thank you!
2. In Someone Else’s Shoes
Set the following assignment for your students:
What was your favourite shoe at the Museum? Write a story about the person who wore these shoes. What was
his or her name? What was his or her life like? What would it have been like to wear these shoes? Imagine that
you and this person traded shoes for one day.
3. Talking Shoes
Here is another follow-up activity to assign your students:
At the Museum, we saw shoes that “talk” about the person who wore them - that say “I’m important” or “I’m
rich.” Find pictures of shoes in magazines that would match each of the sayings below. Make a collage of your
pictures with “talk bubbles” for each saying.
I am happy
I like animals
I am smart
I am good at sports
I am fast
I am from Canada
4. Your Very Own Shoe Museum
As a culminating activity, make a shoe museum in your classroom. Your exhibition can be on a table, or in
“cases” made from cardboard boxes.
Your students can use:
• shoes that invoke special memories for them or someone in their family
• unusual shoes that they or someone in their family owns or uses
• shoes that come from their family’s country
• baby shoes
• objects in the shape of shoes
Ask you students to write a label telling about their shoe and why it is important.
Craft Activities
1. Shoe Sculpture
Bring in an old shoe or pair of shoes. Attach pompoms, glitter, felt, buttons, etc., with white glue to transform
shoes into animals, clowns, machines, dinosaurs. . .
2. Sock Puppets
Bring in an old sock. Glue on eyes, a nose and mouth, and hair. Better yet, make two, so they can talk to each
other. Introduce your puppets to the class. Perhaps your socks can talk about what life is like inside a shoe!
3. Tin Can Stilts
Use two tins (coffee tins are ideal) for the stilts. Get an adult to remove one end of each tin, and to put a hole
on each side at the other end. Paint and decorate the tins. Thread 80cm of ribbon or cord through the holes,
tying the ends together. Walk holding the ribbons with your hands for balance.
Shoe and Foot Sayings
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Put your best foot forward
I’m glad I’m not in his shoes
Head over heels
Down at the heels
You can bet your boots
Getting your feet wet
If the shoe fits wear it
Follow in someone’s footsteps
Jump in with both feet
Get your foot in the door
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The shoe is on the other foot
Walk a mile in my shoes
Kick up your heels
Thinking on your feet
Getting off on the right foot
Put your foot in your mouth
Stand on your own two feet
Have cold feet
Back on your feet
Shoestring budget
Shoe Songs
• Happy Feet (from Happy Feet)
(Fred Penner)
• Brand New Shoes (from Shake a Leg)
(Norman Foote)
• Dancing Shoes
(Bob Marley)
• Blue Suede Shoes
(Carl Perkins/Elvis Presley)
• These Boots Were Made For Walking
(Nancy Sinatra)
• The Elephant Lost his Shoe Again
(Doug Barr)
Shoe Stories
Fiction
Keeper of Soles. New York: Holiday House, 2006
Bateman, Teresa
Brownridge, William R. The Moccasin Goalie. Victoria, BC: Orca Book Publishers, 1995
Brownridge, William R. The Final Game. Victoria, BC: Orca Book Publishers, 1997
Brownridge, William R. Victory at Paradise Hill. Victoria, BC: Orca Book Publishers, 2002
Burton, Marilee
My Best Shoes. New York: Tambourine Books, 1994
Cottle, Joan
Emily’s Shoes. New York: Children’s Press, 1999
Ellis, Sarah
The Queen’s Feet. Calgary, AB: Red Deer Press, 2006
Two Shoes, Blue Shoes, New Shoes! Markham, ON: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2002
Fitz-Gibbon, Sally
Fox, Mem
Shoes from Grandpa. New York: Orchard Books, 1989
Kenward, Jean
The Odd Job Man and the 1000 Mile Boots. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988
Farooqi, Musharraf Ali The Cobbler’s Holiday or Why Ants Don’t Wear Shoes. New York: Roaring Brook
Press, 2008
Father’s Rubber Shoes. New York: Orchard Books, 1995
Heo, Yumi
Konaiko, Leah
Shoe Shine Shirley. New York, Doubleday, 1994
Light, Steve
The Shoemaker Extraordinaire. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc, 2003
Matsuno, Masako
A Pair of Red Clogs. Cynthiana, KY: Purple House Press, 2002
Mayer, Marianna
The Story of Grump and Pout. New York: Crown, 1988
Morgan, Allen
The Magic Hockey Skates. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 1991
Myers, Bernice
The Flying Shoes. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1992
Munch, Robert
Smelly Socks. New York: Scholastic, 2004
Oppenheim, Joanne
Left and Right.. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1989
Orma, Hiawyn &
King Smelly Feet. London: Anderson Press, 2002
Shelley, John
The Mice Who Lived in a Shoe. Harmondsworth, GB: Kestral Books (Penguin), 1981
Peppé, Rodney
Richmond, Maryanne My Shoes Take Me Where I Want to Go. Minneapolis: Marianne Richmond
Studios, 2006
The Greedy Little Cobbler. London: Andersen Press, 1988
Ross, Tony
Ross, Tony
I Want my New Shoes! London: Atheneum, 2007
Sassy Gracie. London: MacMillan Children’s Books, 1998
Sage, James
Sawyer, Ruth
The Remarkable Christmas of the Cobbler's Sons. New York: Viking, 1994
The Magic Boot. Toronto: Annick Press, 1995
Simard, Rémy
Smith, Linda
There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Boot. New York: Harper Collins, 2003
Grass Sandals: The Travels of Basho. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers,
Spivak, Dawine
1997
Vesey, Amanda
Hector’s New Sneakers. New York: Viking, 1993
Vitiger, Susanne &
Mr. Right is Missing! New York: North-South Books, 2006
Blazejovsky, Maria
Wheeler, Bernelda
Where did you get your Moccasins? Winnipeg: Pegius, 1986
Fairy Tales
Arthur, Malcolm
Climo, Shirley
Climo, Shirley
Climo, Shirley
Climo, Shirley
Galdone, Paul
Jeffers, Susan
Louie, Ai-Ling
Lowell, Susan
O'Malley, Kevin
Perlman, Janet
San Souci, Robert D.
Sanderson, Ruth
Puss in Boots. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1990
The Egyptian Cinderella. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1989
The Irish Cinderlad. New York: HarperCollins, 1996
The Korean Cinderella. New York: HarperCollins, 1993
The Persian Cinderella. New York: HarperCollins, 1999
The Elves and the Shoemaker. New York: Clarion Books, 1984
Cinderella. New York: Dutton, 2004
Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China. New York: Philomel Books, 1992
The Bookmaker and the Elves. New York: Orchard Books,1997
Cinder Edna. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1994
Cinderella Penguin. Toronto: KidsCan Press, 1992
Cendrillon. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998
The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1990
Poetry Anthologies
Grimes, Nikki
Lesynski, Loris
Singer, Marilyn
Shoe Magic. New York: Orchard Books, 2000
Shoe Shakes. Toronto: Annick Press, 2007
Shoe Bop! New York: Dutton Children’s Books, 2008
Non-fiction
Alter, Anna
Badt, Karin
Petty, Kate
Weaver, Janice
All About Shoes. Toronto: Bata Limited, 1994
What Can You Do with and Old Red Shoe? New York: Henry Holt, 2009
On Your Feet! Chicago: Children’s Press, 1994
New Shoes. London: A & C Black, 1991
From Head to Toe: Bound Feet, Bathing Suits and Other Bizarre and Beautiful Things.
Toronto: Tundra Books 2003
Websites
Visit www.batashoemuseum.ca to explore the collection, current exhibitions, and events calendar.
Visit www.allaboutshoes.ca to explore past exhibitions and their teacher resources.
To view On Canadian Ground: Stories of Footwear in Early Canada go to
www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/Ground/english/
Financial assistance for the STEP AHEAD educational program provided by: