ELLA ELLA CINDERELLA

     This is the story of Ella. Oh, poor Ella! Sweet, lovely girl...

     Downhall is a small town. Ella lives in a big house in this small town with her parents. Her father is a rich man, her mother is a housewife. Ella's father James always goes faraway countries and doesn't come back for a long time. When he comes back home in the end, Ella and her mother get very happy.

     One day, James goes out of the country for business again. He stays away from his home and lovely family for six months. When he returns home, he learns that his adorable wife, Bella has got a fatal illness. After a very short time, she passes away. Ella and James mourn for her for a very long time. They always think of her and their happy past days. 

     Father and daughter keep on living on their own until that day. Oh, that dark day... The day that James explains the ugly truth to Ella, the day that Ella's nightmare begins. James falls in love with the black widow, Hannelore. Hannelore is a middle-aged, evil minded woman; she also has got two horribly ugly and cruel daughters.

 
     In two weeks' time, James gets married to the black widow. Then, Hannelore and her daughters move James and Ella's home, they start living altogether.

     Everything goes well at the beginning. Dinners, parties with nobel families, lords... After two weeks, James has to go faraway countries for business again. In fact, he doesn't want to leave his daughter alone but he convinces himself that Hannelore and the girls will be good friends to her through his absence. However, he never comes back... His ship can't survive a strong storm, sinks and he gives his last breath in the deep ocean before seeing the pretty face his beloved daughter and saying goodbye to her.

     After James' announcement of death arrives home, the black widow and her daughters, shedding crocodile tears for a few days, start treating Ella like a maid, despising and insulting her. Ella, becoming unhappy day by day, falls into despair. She sleeps in the kitchen and talks only to her animal friends.

     One day in the town it is spread that, there'll be a ball in the palace and the prince will choose his future wife at this ball. Hannelore, the girls and Ella, hearing this, become very happy. After seeing Ella's happiness, Hannelore says that she will never go to the ball and locks her in the attic on the day of the ball.

     Ella lies on her bed desperately and begins to cry silently. Aaaaannd poooofff! Suddenly, a fairy appears in the room and promises to send her to the ball after dressing her up like a princess; but on one condition: "She has to leave the ball before it strikes 12 o'clock at night." 

     The fairy godmother does her magic and dolls Ella up. A gorgeous dress, glass slippers, silky hair...

 
    Ella sets out to the palace on a pumpkin carriage with her servants. Nobody, including the prince, can take their eyes off her. The handsome prince approaches and asks her to dance. They keep on dancing non-stop for hours until Ella notices that it's midnight. After hearing the bell ringing, she rushes to her carriage. However, on the stairs she falls down and loses one of her slippers. The prince ,running after her, can find only the glass slipper of the woman he fell in love with at first sight; but he is decisive to find her and he plans to visit all the houses in the town one by one, make all the single ladies try that glass slipper on until finding the love of his life.

     Wow, wow, wow! The royals are in front of Hannelore's house. Now, it's their turn to try that slipper on. The trumpets blow, the prince and his servants come in. The ugly sisters try the slipper on one by one, but it fits none of them. One of the servants, noticing Ella, says :"It's your turn". "But she is our maid!" opposes Hannelore in a surprised manner. The prince says: "Her being a maid doesn't mean that she can't be the love of my life!" and orders his servants to give the slipper to Ella. She puts it on and it fits her foot as if it has been made for her.


     The prince, finding  his love, hugs her so tight and takes her to the palace right away. Their marriage is celebrated all through the country for days and nights aaaaaannd they live happily forever and ever...

     By the way, if you happen to ask about the cruel witches; of course, they pay for what they've done. And their punishment is living whole their lives with wickedness and falsehood...

                                                   THE END :) 

     

THE BOOT IS ON THE OTHER FOOT ;)

         Things are changing now :) This time the students need to choose the incorrect answers.

-This activity works well for intermediate to advanced level students.

- Prepare a kind of "quiz show" questions: as well as general knowledge you can ask commonsense - trick questions to allow calculated answers.

-All they must do is to choose the incorrect answer.

-It's really enjoyable and I can make sure that you'll have great fun :)

STORY CHAIN

-Give one sentence from the story to each student on a piece of paper. (not in the correct order)
-Then, each student reads out their sentence in turn.
-The students need to put the sentences into the correct order by listening and understanding.
-At the next step, they sit or stand beside the student who has the preceding sentence and complete the story chain.
-When all the sentences are done, they read out the complete story.
 
             Take it easy and have it your way :)      McD...

WHY STORYTELLING?

       Because  "storytelling" is a powerful language teaching tool that:
- interests and motivates both teachers and students.
- provides a meaningful learning through an interactive communication context.
- allows learners to experience authentic language input.
- helps teachers to improve the spoken language skill of their students.
- triggers "IMAGINATION".

 Waiting for your ideas, too. Share your comments with us please :)

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD

       This is Molly. Molly is a little girl living in the woods with her mother. She likes wearing red clothes all the time and also eating the cookies that her mother bakes. Molly has got an old granny living in the village at the far end of the woods. She also likes Molly's mother's cookies very much. So, Molly takes cookies to her every weekend. Today is Saturday and Molly is taking cookies to her granny as usual. However, the way is long, scary and full of dangers for her.

       
        This is the hungry, greedy, hairy and dangerous wolf of the deep woods. It has got big ears to hear, big and sharp teeth to eat.
        Now, Molly is on her way to granny's cottage. She is walking alone on the long path among the huge trees.
        Oh, no! Is that the big hungry wolf looking at her behind those leaves of the trees?
        Poor Molly notices the wolf and thinks that it is friendly, but the truth is ugly because the greedy wolf wants to eat her.
        The wolf comes near her and asks: "Where're you going my pretty?"
        Molly answers: "I'm taking cookies to my old granny living at the far end of the woods."
        The wolf thinks itself: "Yummy! She looks tasty. I can eat both the granny and this sweet girl."
        The wolf says goodbye to Molly and runs fast to the granny's cottage. It eats the poor old granny, wears her clothes and lies on her bed.
        Molly arrives soon. She knocks on the door. The wolf answers: "Come in sweetheart! I can't answer the door myself. You know I'm too old."
        Molly gets in, comes near the bed, looks at the wolf in her granny's clothes and gets surprised by her look. She wonders and asks: "Granny, what's the matter with you? Why do your ears look so big?"
        "To hear you better my sweety!" answers the wolf.
        Molly asks: "Why do your eyes look so big?"
        "To see you better my sweety!" answers the wolf.
        Molly asks again: "Why do your teeth look so big?"
        "To eat you!" shouts the wolf and eats the little girl up.
        A woodcutter hearing the screams rushes to the cottage and catches the running wolf. He cuts its stomach off and takes the poor Molly and her granny out.
        After getting rid of the greedy wolf, everybody in the woods and village live happily ever after...

                                                                   THE END :)

by McD
     

Little Red Riding Hood Performance

OSS! MASTER!

        We're looking for the WORD MASTER :) It's an enjoyable way to test vocabulary knowledge. I've been working on vocabulary for a very long time and been fed up with classical vocab testing ways. I was in search of new methods and this activity suddenly sprang to my mind last week and I tried it.
    
         How to do:

• The pupils are gonna work as individuals. According to their levels, you can demand them mother tongue meanings of the words (do it if you have to pls), visualize them (for objects, action verbs... etc.) or to use the words in a sentence with the right meaning, usage and form.
• Each student has many pieces of paper to draw or write the meanings and sentences.
• The instructor is the referee and writes each student's name on one side of  board.
• The other side of the board is used to write the words to be guessed during the game.
• The pupils have got three "Plead the 5th" rights. They get  (+) for the right answers,  (-) for the wrong ones and  (0) for "Plead the 5th"s.
• When the instructor writes the word on the board. they've got fifteen seconds to write or draw. (The instructor should determine beforehand if the students are going to write meanings, draw or use the word in a sentence.)
• When the time's up, the pupils put their papers up at the same time. According to their guesses they get (+)s, (-)s or (0)s.  The one getting the most (+)s becomes the WORD MASTER of the week and is announced on the class corner till the next one is chosen.

        It worked in my class. I wonder your results and comments. too. :) Take it easy and have it your way...    Mcd :)