By Sarah Stone

Cinderella brings a dash of magic to literacy

Nov 7, 2014 | 10:40 AM

A dash of magic was sprinkled on Arthur Pechy School in Prince Albert.

On Friday characters from Carlton’s Mad Hatter Theatre Company’s production of Cinderella made a guest appearance.

In the kindergarten class Cinderella and her Fairy Godmother stopped in to read the story of Cinderella.

Grade 9 student Samantha Paradis plays Cinderella in the production and said it was great to see the kids’ expression when they walked into the classroom.

“The kids are very excited to see us and to know we’ll be coming back with a bunch other characters from the play to be performing the play,” Paradis said.

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One of those students that was all smiles was Olivia Trann who said “I like the magic part …[and] I like the part at the end when they married.”

Grade 12 student Malissa Paul is the Fairy Godmother. 

“It’s really cool.  It’s kind of funny because it’s both of our elementary school, so it’s interesting to get to come back and get to reach out to and connect with kids in the community because one of the best parts of this production is the fact that it does travel to elementary schools, so we have the chance to connect with other schools,” Paul said.

By reading to the students, she said it emphasizes literacy at a young age.

“I think that it can help with a lot of development with kids, learning how even just to have imagination and to imagine stories and for kids to be more engaged in schools.  Kids that enjoy reading and stories are often more engaged in the classroom and more interested in what they’re studying,” Paul said.

This is something Trann enjoys.

“I practice reading every time I’m not at school,” Trann said.

Trann’s teacher Margaret Zulkoskey said this year’s focus has been on literacy and she was happy to surprise the students with Cinderella and her Fairy Godmother.

“This is just a way of previewing the play for them … Part of our goal this year is literacy and part of literacy is understanding that it can be in the form of a book, or it can be in the form of a play, or a video, so it’s to get them to see that literacy is everywhere,” Zulkoskey explained.

Predicting and previewing is also part of their learning, which she said can be taught through stories.

“I can say to them [the students] ‘what do think Cinderella did next at the end of the story?’ and we can sort of have that discussion, which applies to what we’re working on in literacy now,” she said.

“Literacy is a life-long thing and we all have literacy and can apply literacy in our lives.  It doesn’t matter how old we are, how young we are, but reading to our children from the time that they are tiny is really important.”

The Madder Hatter Theatre Company’s production will perform at the school at the end of the month and at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre Nov. 15 and 16.

sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84