Cinderella – a fairy tale – start here!

This exercise is long and in two parts, reading and listening to a traditional children’s story.You may like to do this part – part 1 today and part 2 on another day!

Many popular children’s stories and films are based on folk tales – these often involve kings, queens, princes, princesses and witches – Snow White, for example, or Sleeping Beauty. There is often an element of magic in them – a flying carpet in Aladdin, or a magic bean in Jack And The Beanstalk.

The fairy tale of Cinderella is a well-known one you may already know. Fairy tales take many forms – sometimes they feature imaginary creatures such as giants, fairies, goblins, elves and pixies, or talking animals such as wolves, foxes or cats – Puss in Boots is one of these, as is Red Riding Hood.

This link gives you the script for six fairy stories. This exercise only uses the first story on the download – Cinderella.

Cinderella

Cinderella lived with her stepmother and two stepsisters, who were jealous of her and treated her very badly. She had to spend all day, every day doing work around the house.
One day an invitation arrived from the prince, who was having a ball. Cinderella had to help her stepmother and stepsisters make beautiful dresses for the ball, and on the night* they went off and left the poor girl alone.

She was very sad, but suddenly her Fairy Godmother appeared and turned Cinderella’s old clothes into a beautiful gown. She turned a pumpkin into a golden coach and some mice into lovely black horses and a rat into a coachman. So Cinderella went to the ball, but her Fairy Godmother warned her that she had to leave the ball by midnight.

When the prince saw Cinderella he thought she was so beautiful that he danced with her all evening. Suddenly the clock began to strike twelve, and Cinderella remembered what her Fairy Godmother had told her. She ran out of the palace and was in such a hurry that one of her glass slippers came off as she was racing down the stairs. The prince found the slipper and ordered his servants to go out into his kingdom and make every girl try the slipper on until they found its owner.

Eventually they arrived at Cinderella’s house and discovered that the slipper fitted her.They took her back to the palace and she married the prince and they lived happily ever after.

*on the night = when the night arrived

gown – a long dress worn on formal occasions

coachman – driver of a horse-drawn carriage

a fairy godmother – a female character in some fairy stories who brings some unexpected good fortune to the hero or heroine

Now for something much more unexpected! If you prefer the traditional versions, just stay with the recording and the scripts above!