Alice in Wonderland as Edufiction: A Cross-Curricular Wonderland 🐇

If you’ve ever felt like your child or students are learning in disconnected chunks—math in the morning, science after lunch, language squeezed somewhere in between—you’re not alone. Many (home)educators and parents wonder: Isn’t there a better way to help young minds see the bigger picture?

That’s where edufiction comes in—and Alice in Wonderland is a perfect example.

Edufiction blends imaginative storytelling with embedded educational content, allowing children to engage with complex ideas through play, character, and narrative. When used well, it becomes a bridge between subjects—helping learners see how literature connects to logic, how science springs from curiosity, and how art and history shape the world of ideas.

In other words, it’s not just teaching reading or writing. It’s helping kids experience how everything they’re learning is part of a larger, meaningful whole.

And Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland does this brilliantly.

Whimsical, clever, and deeply layered, Alice isn’t just a fun read—it’s a ready-made journey into cross-curricular learning. Whether you’re guiding early readers through playful language or leading teens into philosophical debates, this story supports a rich, connected learning experience across the IB curriculum (and beyond).

Let’s explore how Alice can help you bring curiosity, critical thinking, and cohesion into your learning environment—no matter where that learning takes place.

Let’s take a quick trip through Wonderland 🐇🐇🐇

Wonderfully Weird... and Wonderfully Educational (Free Cross-Curricular Lesson Plans for Every Grade Level K–12)

At its heart, Alice encourages readers to question everything—rules, identity, logic, even reality itself. That makes it a perfect partner for Constructivist learning, Theory of Knowledge, and creative cross-disciplinary exploration.

It sparks metacognition, fuels student-led inquiry, and even nudges students to laugh at the absurdity of arbitrary systems (looking at you, Queen of Hearts).

LANGUAGE & LITERATURE

From riddles and rhymes to rich metaphors, Alice is a dream for language lovers.

• Younger learners can play with phonics, wordplay, and storytelling.

• Middle schoolers analyze tone, irony, and theme.

• High schoolers dive into literary theory, satire, and even postmodernism.

A perfect prompt? “Why does Alice always question what’s 'normal'—and what does that teach us about power and perspective?”

MATHEMATICS

Yes, you read that right—math! Carroll was a mathematician, after all.

• Primary students explore concepts like size, patterns, and sequencing (Alice’s big–small transformations are great for this).

• Middle years students can explore logic puzzles, ratios, or even mathematical storytelling.

Class activity idea: Map Alice’s growth and shrinkage using ratios and create a visual timeline with measurements!

SCIENCE

Potions, mushrooms, and body changes? Hello, science!

• Use Alice’s transformations to teach body systems, digestion, or growth cycles.

• Explore chemical reactions with safe potion experiments.

• Discuss perception and brain science with dream logic and identity shifts.

It’s science through story—and students love it.

INDIVIDUALS & SOCIETIES / HUMANITIES

The Queen’s arbitrary rules, Alice’s social awakening, and Victorian values—all offer fertile ground for social studies.

• Younger students explore fairness and roles in society.

• Middle Years students unpack identity, power, and social contracts.

• Older learners connect Wonderland’s absurdity to real-world politics or philosophy.

Try this prompt: “What happens when logic breaks down in a society? What rules would you rewrite?”

THE ARTS (VISUAL, DRAMA, MUSIC)

Wonderland is visual storytelling at its finest.

• Younger kids love illustrating their own versions of Alice or the White Rabbit.

• Older students can stage scenes, create surreal costume designs, or interpret characters through movement or music.

Let their imagination run wild—Alice would approve.

DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY

If Alice had a GPS, would she still get lost?

• Use her journey as a springboard for mapmaking, interactive storytelling, or even basic game design.

• Students can “redesign” Wonderland to be more navigable—what systems would they build?

A favorite challenge: Build a student-created escape room based on Alice’s logic puzzles!

THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE

This is where Alice truly shines.

The whole book reads like a TOK thought experiment: Who am I? What do I know? Can nonsense still carry truth?

• Analyse how language shapes thought.

• Debate whether reason or emotion is more reliable.

• Explore absurdity as insight.

Even the Mad Hatter makes a great TOK prompt: If he knows it’s not tea time… why does he act like it is?

So, Why Teach Alice?

Because no other story so effortlessly teaches:

• Critical thinking

• Creative inquiry

• Interdisciplinary thinking

• Playful engagement

All while encouraging students to question the world around them—and themselves.