Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Assembly by Musicline
• Suitable for Years 3 to 6 (age 7–11 years)
• Aim: Celebrate the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland"
Resources required: None
PowerPoint Slide 1
“Welcome” slide on screen.
Welcome the children.
Explain that in this assembly today, you are going to be looking at the work of a very famous writer.
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Book with blank pages.
Ask the children to have a look at the four pictures which will appear.
Each picture takes about 5 x seconds to appear.
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Four characters from the book appear.
Point to the characters and ask the children if they recognise any of them; name any who the children fail to recognise.
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Pictures of Alice and line drawings appear.
Ask the children if they know the name of the girl in the bottom left hand corner.
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“Can you name this famous book?”
Hands up from the children – see if anybody knows the full title – identify her if there is no response.
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“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.
Hands up – “How many of you have heard of this book”?
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“Can you name this famous book?” disappears.
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“Now, can anyone name the author (writer)?”
Hands up from the children or ask the children to whisper to their neighbour to ask if they know the answer.
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“Lewis Carroll” appears.
Hands up – “How many of you knew that the writer was Lewis Carroll?”
[OPTIONAL:- The illustrator, “Tove Jansson” was a famous lady from Finland who was born 100 years ago (1914) and who designed “Comic Strip” characters for many authors.]
Lewis Carroll wrote “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” many years ago.
Can anyone guess how old the story is?
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“Alice in Wonderland” was written in…?
Explain to the children that if it was written 100 years ago, it would have been written in 1915.
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1865 on screen.
See if the children can work out that the story is 150 years old.
Next is a photograph of Lewis Carroll.
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Photograph of Lewis Carroll appears.
Lewis Carroll was born in 1832.
Lewis Carroll is his “Pen Name”.
He was born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.
Not only did he write stories, he was a brilliant mathematician.
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“Keep calm and love maths”.
He invented a diagram which is still used in schools today.
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Chart of “Prime” and “Not Prime” numbers.
Hands up if any of you have ever seen a diagram like this.
Point to the columns and look carefully at the layout.
Next is a more complicated version of this diagram.
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A more elaborate chart.
Point at the layout again.
Ask the children if they know what this is called.
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Keep calm; it’s called a “Carroll” diagram.
Why do the children think that it is called this?
As a mathematician, Lewis Carroll realised that a very simple and successful way of sorting numbers (or anything else!) was to classify it as something… or not that thing.
If time allows, you can complete a “Carroll” diagram “Live” with the children.
Lewis Carroll was also a very keen photographer in the days when photography was just beginning.
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Two photo frames appear.
Tell the children that photos of some children will appear in the photo frames.
Would your children like to guess who these children might be?
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Two pictures are shown.
“Have a good look at these photos” – Hands up; who are these children?
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The left hand picture is Alice and the right hand picture is Alice and her two sisters.
Lewis Carroll went to Oxford University and it was there, in 1862 that he took a boat trip with Alice Liddell and her two sisters.
During the boat trip he told them stories of a little girl called Alice.
Alice begged him to write the stories down and he began immediately.
He researched animals carefully before writing them into the story.
The first version, 15,500 words long was given to Alice on November 26th 1864.
He then developed the story further and gave it to a publisher the following year.
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The Dodo, the Lory and the Eaglet are three birds that gather on the bank with Alice after falling into her pool of tears.
He based the character of the “Dodo” on himself, whilst the “Lory” is Alice’s sister, Lorina and the “Eaglet” is her sister, Edith.
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Two pictures of the Dodo.
Tell the children that the left hand picture is Lewis Carroll’s Dodo; the right hand picture is Disney’s Dodo.
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Blank pages.
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The Lory.
Tell the children that these are illustrations from the original “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” book; the “Lory” is a real bird rather like a parrot.
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Blank pages.
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The Eaglet.
Tell the children that the “Eaglet” (a young eagle) is ringed in the pictures.
There have been over 100 editions of the book and it has been printed in 97 different languages.
When it was first published, however, it sold very few copies until the publisher let it be known that it was Queen Victoria’s favourite book.
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The Power of Celebrity!
It then flew off the shelves showing that even 150 years ago, a “Celebrity” endorsement of a product could work wonders for sales!
Here is a picture of the celebrity!
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Queen Victoria.
Although the book was written many years ago, we can still enjoy it today, either by reading it or watching a film version.
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Book cover of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.
This is the original book cover.
[OPTIONAL:- The illustrator, “John Tenniel” is best known for his “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” illustrations, although this is the only work of its type that he ever undertook].
Ask the children if they remember the name of the cat in the tree.
Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for wonderful stories written by others for us to enjoy.
Help us to use our talents too, whatever they may be.
Amen.