Level

Penguin Young Readers Factsheets

Cinderella

Teachers Notes

Summary of the story

Cinderella is a traditional fairy tale based on the central character, Cinderella, who lives with her cruel family. She has two ugly stepsisters who make Cinderella do all their work. They wear beautiful clothes and she has to wear rags. They get an invitation to the ball but Cinderella does not and she is very upset. Suddenly, a fairy godmother appears and helps Cinderella get to the ball. At the ball Cinderella dances with the Prince who falls in love with her. However, at the stroke of midnight Cinderella must leave the ball as her clothes will turn back to rags after 12 oclock and as she rushes out she leaves one of her shoes behind. The prince tries the shoe on lots of women throughout the land until he finds Cinderella. They get married and live happily ever after.

Background to the story

There are written examples of stories similar to Cinderella in Chinese manuscripts from as early as 850AD. Charles Perrault (1628-1703) is credited as its author as well as of Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, and Bluebeard. The original manuscripts were signed by his youngest son, Pierre, but as Pierre would have been very young when the tales were written, Charles Perrault is widely believed to have written them himself.

Topics and themes

Clothes. Cinderella has both rags and ball clothes. Do pupils like to wear smart or ordinary clothes? When do they wear different ones? Is it important to dress in certain ways, for school, play, parties? Family. Cinderella has a stepmother and sisters which might initiate a discussion on siblings. Magic. There is plenty of scope to widen this topic from magic wands. The body. It may be a good point to mention that the sisters and stepmother are ugly in the story because of their unkind behaviour. Parties. The class could design all sorts of different invitations for different occasions such as a party, a new baby, a competition won etc. Time. There are three examples of time in the story and this is a good way to link mother tongue time-telling with English time-telling.

Making use of the Reader

Time. Make a big card clock that all the class can see and make sure the hands can move around for yourself and make sure that the pupils make a smaller one for themselves. Read the story, or ask a student to read the story, and as the times are mentioned all the class have to make their clock look tell that time. You could have three different groups who will each take a turn to do this. Magic. Play the magic wand game to consolidate and revise vocabulary from other topics such as animals, farm, size, family, etc. and to remember adjectives. Make a magic wand from a stick covered in silver foil and decorated with a star. Now, you play the role of magician (or fairy godmother/father) for example, say trrrrring you are all elephants. The pupils have to mime being elephants or, trrrrring you are all very sad. The pupils have to look sad. Extension activity: the pupils take turns to be the magician. Magician game. Make some flashcards to give the pupils practise in reading. The magician has to take a card before he gives the command. You could make different sets of cards for different topics. (You could use a bell, triangle, guiro or maraca to make the trrrring sound). Dramatization. Select five pupils to play the key characters in the story. All the others can be in the Ball scene. You could even practise this

Cinderella
Level 2

Pearson Education Limited 2000. Visit our website at www.penguinreaders.com

Level

Penguin Young Readers Factsheets

Cinderella

Teachers Notes

and perform the story for younger pupils or parents. You can use the audio cassette as a soundtrack. Finger puppets of the five characters. You will need: strips of paper to fit the pupils fingers glue sticks or sellotape to stick the edges and colour pens for faces. Groups of five (one for each character) can go to the reading corner or a quiet area and listen again to the cassette, using their finger puppets to retell the story. Draw pictures of what happened to the ugly sisters. You can make the pictures into a Big Book, add captions and read it together.

Using the accompanying video and audio cassette

Watching or listening for specific information/postreading/whole class. Before watching or listening to the cassette (if the pupils have already read the book) elicit the names of the main characters from the story and write them on the board. Tell the pupils to, for example, stand up when they see Cinderella or when they hear her name, to clap, and so on. Give different groups of pupils a character to stand up for throughout the story. This will result in very energetic and active viewing or listening. During watching and listening whole class prediction. Play the video or audio cassette story through in its entirety. The second time through, stop just before a dramatic event in the story for example, when the clock strikes at midnight, and ask the pupils to tell you what happens next, then view or listen to see if they were right. Simultaneous reading and listening in groups is also an valuable activity as it will help the pupils with pronunciation and intonation, encourage to make more use of stress and intonation in English and help them follow the normal pace of speech. Stop the video at various places where the actor is speaking and ask the pupils to find the place in their book.

Notes on using the activities in the factsheet

Activity 1. Read and match. First, revise telling the time. Then read the captions. Encourage the pupils to recall the times used in the story. When they have matched the times to the captions, they can draw pictures for each. Activity 2. Label the picture using the words in Answers to the activities the box. Activity 3. Pupils have to complete the invitation In the back of the Reader as though they were having a party, perhaps their birthday party or a class party of even a Before you read Cinderella party. You may need to pre-teach 1. Middle picture Cinderella is sad. start/finish so that they can complete the 2. Cinderella is on pages 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, invitation. You will also need to discuss what it 10, 13, 14. The ugly sisters are on pages 1, means by clothes and what to bring. These 3, 8, 12, 13, 14. The shoe is on pages 11, could include swimming clothes if it is a 12. The fairy is on pages 5, 6. The beautiful swimming party or fancy dress etc. Copy a dress is on page 6, 7, 8, 9. There is a letter range of these and have a display of them in on page 3. Cakes are on page 1. The the class. Prince is on page 7, 8, 9, 11,12, 13, 14. Activity 4. Drawing some designs for Ball There is wool on page 1. clothes. In this activity pupils will design some clothes, or perhaps just clothes for themselves, In the factsheet to wear at a Ball/Dance. Activity 1 1c, 2a, 3b You can vote for the best design in the class and Activity 2 1=dress, 2=jacket, 3=boot, let that student be designer of the week/class.
4=shoe, 5=trousers.

Cinderella

Level 2

Pearson Education Limited 2000. Visit our website at www.penguinreaders.com

Level

Penguin Young Readers Factsheets

PHOTOCOPIABLE

Pupils Activities

Cinderella
Name.............................................................................................................

Activity 1
Match the sentences on the left to the times on the right. 1. A letter arrived 2. The fairy godmother came 3. Cinderella ran from the Ball a. at 9 oclock. b. at 12 oclock. c. at 10 oclock.

Activity 2
Label the pictures with these words.

dress

shoe

jacket

boot

trousers

2. 1.

Cinderella

3.

4.

5.

Level 2

Pearson Education Limited 2000. Visit our website at www.penguinreaders.com

Level

Penguin Young Readers Factsheets

PHOTOCOPIABLE

Pupils Activities

Cinderella
Name.............................................................................................................

Activity 3
Fill in the invitation.

Invitation to
Name Start time Finish time Place Clothes What to bring

Activity 4
Draw some clothes to go to a ball.

Cinderella

Level 2

Pearson Education Limited 2000. Visit our website at www.penguinreaders.com