Penguin Readers Factsheets level

T e a c h e r’s n o t e s 1

Five Famous Fairy Tales

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5
Retold by Jane Rollason
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ELEMENTARY
S U M M A R Y
‘The Table, the Donkey and the Stick’ tricks the queen into releasing the king, and then kills her.
There are three brothers. Two of them are cheated out of The two kings become friends and send beautiful things to
magic possessions – a table that makes food and a donkey the fisherman and his family.
that makes gold – by a jealous old man, and made to look ‘The White Birds’
foolish in front of their neighbours when they try to When ten sons are banished by their stepmother and
demonstrate the magic. The third brother hears about this changed into birds, their sister, Elisa, sets out to find them.
and, when he encounters the same old man, he uses his She learns that she can break the spell if she makes coats
magic possession – a stick which beats people on for the birds from golden flowers, but only on condition that
command – to regain the magic table and the magic she doesn’t speak until she has finished the coats.
donkey. All ends happily.
She follows these instructions and, while she is making
‘The Prince and His Servants’ the coats, she meets a king who takes her back to his
A poor prince gathers a group of servants around him who country. The king’s jealous younger brother plots against
each have one amazing power. Fat Man can eat anything, her and persuades the people that her silence is sinister,
Long Arms can reach anything, Quick Eyes can see and her search for the special flowers is connected with a
anything, Big Ear can hear anything and Cold Man can cool plot to kill the king. However, one of the birds warns the
anything. All of these special powers come in useful when king of his brother’s plans to burn his wife to death, and
a jealous queen sets the prince some seemingly impossible returns in the nick of time to save her and throw his brother
tasks before he can win the hand of her daughter. from the city walls. Elisa, meanwhile, has finished the coats
and, when she puts them on the birds, they change back
‘The Glass Box’
into her fine brothers.
When Hans meets an old woman, and tells her he wants
money, she shows him how to get money, gold and jewels
in return for a glass box. However, because she is ABOUT THE AUTHORS
impatient, he does not give her the glass box but keeps it
for himself. He learns how to use the glass box to summon Jacob Gnmm (1785–1863) and WilheIm Grimm
one of three large dogs that ensure he will never be poor (1786–1859) were German brothers and scholars. They
again. Later, he uses the magic powers of the box to help were educated at the University of Marburg. Jacob was
him to meet Princess Anna who has been imprisoned by interested in medieval literature and language, while
her unhappy father. He uses it again to save himself when Wilhelm was a literary critic. After several years in Kassel,
he is sentenced to die for presuming to woo the young the brothers worked at the University of Gottingen. They
woman. Even the old king is happy when Hans and Anna then moved to Berlin, where they spent the rest of their
marry and become the new king and queen. lives. Both brothers wrote numerous academic works as
well as fairy stories, and Jacob Grimm’s contribution to
‘The Fisherman and the Giant’ linguistic theory (Grimm’s law of sound shift) was a major
A poor fisherman releases a giant from a gold jar where he development in the study of dead languages.
has been imprisoned for over 300 years. At first the angry Hans Christian Anderson (1805–1875) was born in
giant wants to kill the fisherman but later agrees to help him Odense in Denmark. His childhood was one of poverty and
to get rich. He shows the fisherman where beautiful fish neglect and at the age of 14 he ran away from home to join
swim in a blue and gold sea, and is paid handsomely for the theatre. His first poetry and prose was published in
them by the king. But when the king tries to cook them, 1822 and he travelled extensively throughout Europe, Asia
strong people appear and destroy the fish. The king insists and Africa. He wrote more than 150 stories for children,
on seeing where the fish come from and finds, near the blue including The Ugly Duckling, The Emperor’s New
and gold sea, a king imprisoned by the man’s queen. He Clothes, The Snow Queen and The Little Mermaid. The

© Pearson Education 2001

 level
Penguin Readers Factsheets 2
T e a c h e r’s n o t e s
Thousand and One Nights is a collection of stories from ‘The Prince and His Servants’
Arabia. The king hates women. He marries a new woman Put students into small groups and ask them to think up a
every day and killed her the next morning. But then he challenge for the prince and his servants. If possible, the
married Sheherezade. She told him a different story every challenge should be impossible, even with their special
powers. Then ask the groups to describe their challenges
night but not the ending so he had to wait until the next
and choose the best (i.e. most impossible) one.
night. After a thousand and one nights, she had no more
stories, but by then the king loved her and did not kill her. ‘The Glass Box’
Remind students that Hans defeats the first plan by the
jealous servant by writing Xs on hundreds of houses. Put
BACKGROUND AND THEMES students into pairs to think of a way to defeat the second
trick – the stones.
These five fairy tales, from at least three different countries,
share common themes. All involve a search, either for love ‘The Fisherman and the Giant’
or money, or both. All end happily, at least for the main
Put students into pairs to role play the scenes between the
characters. Kindness is also present throughout the stories king and the queen – pages 28 and 29.
– men, women, fairies, strange creatures, – all show
kindness to the hero or heroine. Where kindness is shown, ‘The White Birds’
it is usually, although not always, repaid. Jealousy is also Put students into pairs to role play a scene between Elisa
present throughout. A mother is jealous of her daughter, a and the king. He wants her to tell him the story of her life
but she cannot speak. She has to mime everything while he
man is jealous of the magical possessions of his lodgers, a
tries to understand.
servant is jealous of her mistress, a king is jealous of his
brother, a king is jealous of his wife’s lover. Jealousy usually ACTIVITIES AFTER READING THE BOOK
leads to punishment. Ask students to decide which story they like most and then
So love and money, kindness and jealousy. The raw to work in groups with people who chose the same story. In
their groups, they must make a list of reasons why the liked
material of life plus a sprinkling of magic to make everything
their story and why they thought it was better than the
come right for the kind people in the end. others. Each group must then appoint a spokesman to give
the reasons for choosing their story and you, the teacher,
decides which set of reasons is the best.

Communicative activities
The following teacher-led activities cover the same sections Glossary
of text as the exercises at the back of the Reader and It will be useful for your students to know the following new words. They
supplement those exercises. For supplementary exercises are practised in the ‘Before You Read’sections of exercises at the back
coveting shorter sections of the book, see the of the book. (Definitions are based on those in the Longman Active
photocopiable Student’s Activities pages of this Factsheet. Study Dictionary.)
These are primatily for use with class readers but, with the ‘The Table, the Donkey and the Stick’ and ‘The Prince and His
Servants’
exception of the discussion and pair/group work activities,
appear (v) to begin to be seen
can also be used by students working alone in a self-access
donkey (n) a grey or brown animal like a small horse with long ears
centre. fairy tale (n) a story for children in which magical things happen
ACTIVITIES BEFORE READING THE BOOK gold (n) a valuable soft yellow metal
ice (n) water that has frozen and become solid
Put students into small groups and ask them: jealous (adj) feeling angry or unhappy because someone else has
1 to make a list of people and things they expect to find in something that you wish you had
fairy stories. jewel (n) a valuable stone such as a diamond
king (n) the male ruler of a country
2 to work together to retell a fairy story they know well magic (n) a special power used to make strange or impossible things
happen
ACTIVITIES AFTER READING A SECTION once (adv) at one time in the past
poor (adj) having very little money and not many possessions
‘The Table, the Donkey and the Stick’ prince (n) the son of a king or queen
Put students into groups of six to act out the story. The princess (n) the daughter of a king or queen
characters are: queen (n) the female ruler of a country
servant (n) someone whose job is to live in another person’s house and
Tom do such jobs as cleaning and cooking
Bob stick (n) a long thin piece of wood, especially one that has fallen from a
Jack tree
The mother ‘The Glass Box’
stone (n) a small rock or piece of rock
The jealous man
‘The Fisherman and the Giant’ and ‘The White Birds’
Tell students that there is one extra character – a friend of fisherman (n) a man who catches fish as a job or a sport
the jealous man – with whom he plans the tricks. giant (n) an extremely tall, strong man in children’s stories
jar (n) a round glass container with a lid, used for storing food

Publis hed and di stribut ed b y Pearson Ed ucation

F acts heet wr it te n by T er ry Phi lips
© Pearson Education 2001 Factsheet series developed by Louise James
Penguin Readers Factsheets level

Student’s activities 1

2
Five Famous Fairy Tales 3

Photocopiable 4
Students can do these exercises alone or with one or more
other students. Pair/group-only exercises are marked. 5

Activities before reading the book 6

Work in groups of three. Each person must read one (e) ‘the stick will jump out and hit you.’
section of the Introduction then talk about the information (f) Jack took the book and started his journey home. ELEMENTARY
to the other two people in the group.
(g) He came to the house of the kind old man.
(h) When Jack went to bed, he put the box on the
Activities while reading the book door.
(i) The jealous man came into the room and put his
‘The Table, the Donkey and the Stick’ head on the box.
1 Complete Tom’s story with a suitable word from the (j) Suddenly, Jack jumped out of the box.
box in each space. (k) The stick helped the jealous old man.
(I) Jack took the table, the donkey and the man to
back bed food house journey letter man
mother night nothing son table town village his mother’s house.
year
‘The Prince and His Servants’
(a) Tom worked for a kind man in the next ... 1 Complete the names of Jack’s servants.

(b) Tom worked very hard for one .... (a) Fat

(c) The kind man gave him a .... (b) Big

(d) When he said to the table ‘I am hungry.’ , (c) Quick

wonderful ... appeared. (d) Long
(e) He carried the table on his ... (e) Cold
(f) One day he thought ‘I would like to see my ... 2 Which servant ...?
again.’ (a) can hear the birds singing in a country over the
(g) On the last night of his ... , – sea
(h) – he came to an old ... (b) can make the sun disappear
(i) An old ... lived there. (c) can eat ten chickens and a hundred cakes
(j) When Tom was asleep that ... , he took the magic (d) can see through buildings
table. (e) has arms as long as trees
(k) He put a new table next to Tom’s ....
3 Who ...?
(I) Tom’s mother was happy when she saw her
youngest ... (a) wanted to marry the princess

(m) She invited everybody from the ... to see the (b) saw the jewel in the river
magic table. (c) drank the water in the river
(n) But when Tom said ‘I am hungry.’, ... happened. (d) got the jewel and gave it to the prince
(o) Tom ran away from home and wrote a ... to his (e) ate thirty chickens
brother, Jack. (f) put something in the prince’s glass of wine
2 Work in pairs. Tell Bob’s story. Use some of the (g) fell asleep
sentences from Exercise 1.
(h) heard the princess calling
3 One word in each sentence from Jack’s story is wrong. (i) jumped into the river
Find the word and cor rect it.
(j) made a great fire under the prince’s room
(a) Jack worked with a wood-cutter for a week.
(k) opened his coat and made the room colder
(b) The wood-cutter gave him a beautiful table.
(I) opened the door of the room
(c) There was a donkey inside it.
(m) ran out of the room
(d) ‘ When someone is kind to you,’ said the wood-
(n) lived happily with the prince and the princess
cutter,

© Pearson Education 2001

 level
Penguin Readers Factsheets 2
Student’s activities

‘The Glass Box’ ‘The White Birds’

1 Match the things from the first part of the story. Make 1 Put these events from the first part of the story in order.
three lists.
(a) A fairy came to Elisa and told her to make ten
third door plates gold coats from gold flowers.
second door oranges jewels (b) A man with dogs came to Elisa’s house.
first door eggs money (c) Elisa followed the river to the sea.
(d) Elisa met an old woman.
2 Tell the first part of the story. Use your lists from
(e) Elisa ran away from the king’s house.
Exercise 1.
(f) Elisa saw ten white birds.
3 Where did Hans put ...?
(g) Once there was a king who sent away his ten
(a) the money sons.
(b) the gold (h) That night, Elisa’s brother came to her.
(c) the jewels (i) The man took Elisa, the flowers and the coats to
4 What happened when Hans ... ? his country.
(a) hit the box once (j) The old woman took Elisa to the river.
(b) hit the box two times (k) The queen changed the ten boys into ten white
birds.
(c) hit the box three times
2 Are these sentences from the second part of the story
5 How did Hans ... ? true or false?
(a) bring the princess to him the first time (a) The king had a jealous older brother.
(b) find out about the X on his door (b) One day the king left the city.
(c) get the glass box when he was in the king’s house (c) Elisa, the queen, went with him.
6 Work in pairs. Tell the last part of the story. What did (d) Elisa found a place with gold flowers.
each dog do? (e) The king’s brother followed Elisa to the place.
‘The Fisherman and the Giant’ (f) Elisa planned to kill the king.
1 Match the adjectives and nouns to make phrases from (g) One of the birds flew to the king.
the story. (h) The king killed the bird.
(a) poor (i) cups (i) The people from the city brought sticks and built a
large fire.
(b) dead (ii) daughter
(j) They put Elisa on the fire.
(c) old (iii) feet
(k) Elisa put the coats on the birds.
(d) gold (iv) fish (I) The ten white birds changes into ten young
(e) white (v) fisherman princesses.

(f) great (vi) giant

Activities after reading the book
(g) youngest (vii) hair
All these stories include at least one jealous person. In
(h) rich (viii) horse
which story is:
(i) red, white and gold (ix) jar (a) a mother jealous of her daughter?
(j) strange (x) man (b) a man jealous of the things that people have?
(c) a servant jealous of her mistress?
(k) red (xi) sea
(d) a king jealous of his brother?
(I) blue and gold (xii) smoke
(e) a king jealous of his wife’s servant?
(m)stone (xiii) water
(n) magic (xiv) woman
2 Work in pairs. Tell the story, using phrases from
Exercise 1.

Publishe d and distribu ted by P ear son E ducat ion

Factsheet written by Terry Philips
© Pearson Education 2001
Fac tshe et s e ri e s devel oped by L o uise J ame s