An Invitation Arrives from the Palace. the Prince Is Looking for a Wife

Prompt sheet

The characters

Cinderella

Ugly sisters

Cinderella’s father

Plot

An invitation arrives from the palace. The Prince is looking for a wife.

The ugly sisters go to the ball at the palace.

Cinderella is not allowed to go.

Cinderella’s fairy godmother appears and makes Cinderella’s dreams come true.

Cinderella goes to the ball.

At midnight Cinderella runs from the palace.

Cinderella’s shoe falls off as she runs.

The Prince finds the shoe.

The Prince searches the land for the foot that fits the shoe.

Eventually he finds Cinderella.

The shoe fits Cinderella.

The Prince and Cinderella get married and live happily ever after.

HRP Rhyme and Ritual

The Princess and the Pea

This is a tale about a princess who couldn’t sleep!

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a beautiful castle. It was built into the side of a cliff, right at the sea’s edge, with a path winding down from the cliff’s edge and stone steps at the really steep parts. In the summer, when the sun shone and the weather was calm, the sea lapped gently at the castle walls, and you could hear the swishing sound of the waves as they trailed back over the small stones. Then the sea grew almost warm, and the people from the castle would dive from the castle walls and splash around in the sea. But in winter, storms would arrive with gale force winds and lashing rain. Then the sea would be like a grey frothing torrent, enormous waves beating and slamming against the castle as if the ocean was determined to break it up and drive the pieces back into the sea. But the castle stayed standing, and the walls became just a little more weather-beaten.

A king and queen lived in the castle and they had one son, called Robert. Robert was a very happy boy, and on the whole, he didn’t get lonely, even though there were not many children around to play with. He and the son of the cook would go fishing along the rocky shore, coming back with sea trout and crabs, which his friend’s father would cook on an open fire for supper that night. And, as he grew older, he made friends with some of the lads in the village at the top of the cliff, and they would have surfing competitions, swimming out beyond the waves and then riding in on the crests, on pieces of driftwood.

Well, the time came when the king and queen decided that Robert should be married. Obviously he needed to marry a princess, but where would they find a real princess? There were other castles further down the coast, and some inland, beyond the high moors which could be seen, grey and purple in the evening sunlight, from the highest towers of the castle. But the king and queen knew well that, although there were lords and ladies who lived in these castles, who called their sons princes and their daughters princesses, they were not real princes and princesses. And they wanted Robert to marry a real princess.

The king put out a proclamation, letting it be known that his son was looking for a bride. Lots of princesses came to the castle, brought there by their parents, in the hope of marrying Robert. The castle was a beautiful and very ancient one, and the lands around it were rich and prosperous, so there were many families who wished their daughters to become queen of the castle. Each week a new family would arrive, with an entourage of servants carrying all the baggage on donkeys, treading carefully down the steep paths and steps to the castle by the sea. And each week the queen, Robert’s mother, would subject the princess to a test, to find out if she was a real princess or not.

The queen knew that a real princess will have very tender skin, and that she can only sleep on a bed made from the finest feathers. So each princess that arrived at the castle was shown into a magnificent bedchamber, filled with perfumed waters and silken hangings. In this chamber stood a wonderful and very ancient four-poster bed, with twenty feather mattresses piled on top of it. The bed stood so high that you had to climb a ladder to get in! Each of the princesses was very impressed by the bed, and marvelled at its age and the beauty of its carvings. They also found it very comfortable – with all those feather mattresses. But what they did not know was that the queen had placed a small hard pea beneath the bottom mattress. She knew that a real princess would be able to feel the pea through all the twenty mattresses, and that she would not find the bed comfortable at all!

So when each princess came down in the morning, after sleeping on the wonderful feather bed, the queen would say, “And how did you sleep my dear?” When the princess replied, “Very well. Your bed is so comfortable,” the queen would shake her head and look at her husband and son and they would know that this was not a real princess at all!

One night, just as the summer was ending and winter was starting to make itself felt, a knock was heard on the castle door. At first the king, queen and Robert thought that it was just the tapping of a stray piece of wood, blown up out of the sea by the stormy winds and the drifting rain. But, as the tapping noise persisted, the prince opened the door, and there stood the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. True she was dripping wet, and her hair fell down her face, running with water, and her cloak and dress were dark with rain. But despite this, she was so beautiful that the prince just stood and stared. The king and queen came rushing out to see who was there, and saw this girl standing dripping onto their hall floor. All she kept saying was, “I am a real princess.”

“Well,” thought the queen, “we’ll see about that!” So the queen had the servants light a fire in the magnificent bedchamber, and prepare the beautiful feather bed with stone hot water bottles, and help the princess to get warm and clean and dry. When she was changed she came down and ate supper with the king and the queen and the prince, and once again, Robert was struck with how beautiful she was and how charming she seemed. Then the princess climbed the ladder into the ancient four-poster bed, and snuggled down on top of the twenty feather mattresses. But underneath them all was the very small hard dry pea!

In the morning, the queen greeted her guest as she came into breakfast. “And how did you sleep my dear?” The princess took a while to reply, and then she said, “I am afraid I did not sleep at all well. There seemed to be something hard under the mattresses, and I tossed and turned all night. It felt as if I was sleeping on a stone!” The queen and king looked at each other, and then Robert turned to them. “You see,” he said triumphantly, “she is a real princess!”

So the princess married Robert in his castle on the edge of the sea, and naturally, they lived happily ever after. But Robert had the pea set on a velvet cushion and covered by a glass dome where it stood, on display in the castle entrance hall. It reminded him of the way that a real princess had come dripping into his life!

Week 2

When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears,

Oh what did her blue eyes see?

A bowl that was huge,

A bowl that was small,

And a bowl that was tiny, and that was all,

She counted them, one, two, three.

When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears,

Oh what did her blue eyes see?

A chair that was huge,

A chair that was small

And a chair that was tiny, and that was all.

She counted them, one, two, three.

When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears,

Oh what did her blue eyes see?

A bed that was huge,

A bed that was small,

And a bed that was tiny, and that was all.

She counted them, one, two, three.

When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears,

Oh what did her blue eyes see?

A bear that was huge,

A bear that was small

And a bear that was tiny, and that was all.

They growled at her, ger, ger, ger.