PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

6th grade of Primary

Long long time ago, something very strange happened in the prosper town of Hamelin. 

One morning, when his fat and satisfied inhabitants came out of their houses, they found the streets invaded by thousands of mice. They were prowling everywhere, devouring insatiably the grain of their barns and the food of their pantries.

Nobody could understand the cause of such an invasion and, even worse, nobody knew what to do to end with such a disturbing plague. No matter how they tried to exterminate them, or at least frighten them off, it seemed that each time more and more mice went to the city.

It was such the amount of mice that, day after day, dominated the streets and houses that even the cats fled frightened.

In view of the seriousness of the situation that the distinguished men of the town, who were seeing their fortunes in danger, called the Council and said

“We’ll give one hundred golden coins to the person who gets out of the mice”.

Few time after, a taciturn, tall and gangling flutist introduced to them. Nobody had seen him before and he told them.-

“The reward will be mine. By this night, there won’t be a single mouse in Hamelin”.

After that, he started walking through the streets playing with his flute a wonderful melody which enchanted the mice. They went out of their hidden places following spellbound the steps of the flutist who was playing his flute tirelessly.

This way, walking and playing, he took them to a very far place, so far that the walls of the town could not be seen. In that place, there was a large river where all the mice died drowned when they tried to cross it to follow the flutist.

The people from Hamelin, breathed relieved when they saw themselves free from the voracious troops of mice.

Pre-telling: Playing with Song and Story

Using a familiar song that the students love to sing, they must write a class story related to the song. Adding characters, simple dialogue and actions that can help to make the song come alive. By combining the story and the song, the students will experience the fun of participating in a musical drama. Challenge the students to vary the tone of their voices and to use their body movements to help portray the personalities of the characters in the story. Experiment with using simple sound effects, props and costumes.

After that we will show them some words which change the rule for making plurals.

Tooth - Teeth

Mouse - Mice

Coin - Coins

Child - Children

Man - Men

Woman - Women

Person - People

Leaf - Leaves

Talk about the similarities and differences between watching a movie, a television show and a “live” theatre presentation. Include discussions about how the performers prepare for their roles in each of the situations (for instance, how an actor in a movie or a television show can redo a scene if a mistake is made versus an actor in a “live” performance who must carry on regardless of mistakes) and how an audience member impacts each type of performance.
Prepare your students for watching a “live” performance by discussing the characteristics of a positive audience member. For example, a positive audience member:

· will sit quietly so everyone around can see and hear the performance

· will listen attentively and remain focused on the actors and musicians

· will not distract performers by moving about or by waving or calling out to performers

· will laugh and applaud appropriately

· will contribute to the performance when asked to

       

Remind your students to notice the way that the set, costumes and live music help to make the performance of HAMELIN: A NEW FABLE exciting and fun to watch!

Post-telling

After playing Hamelin, the student will recreate the story using an iPad app called “Comic Maker” where they can use pictures from the web or they can also take photos of their selves.

They must apply the vocabulary learnt on the pre-telling activities and what they learnt from the story.

Example