Introduction

This pack is suitable for delivery to students working at key stage one and key stage two.

The pack is designed to be delivered in several ways. Teachers can either select stand-alone lessons to deliver as one-off tasks or deliver the pack in its entirety with the option to produce an end of term assembly or show. The fundamental idea is to ignite creativity in students, providing performance opportunities while educating students on the important messages of the show, which explores kindness, cruelty and social class.

Each lesson provides an indication of which key stage relates to a particular task. Teachers are able to use the planning and resources provided and adapt certain aspects to support the needs or current areas of study to suit their cohort.

For example, the aim is not to derail students’ current studies in order to deliver the pack, and during the delivery of lessons such as literacy, teachers are able to tailor the skills focus for that lesson based on what they are currently teaching in class. This allows schools the option to feed this into their normal curriculum or dedicate a specific time frame in order to deliver this pack as a standalone programme leading up to a show, assembly or display.

Resources needed to deliver the pack

• A collection of materials for students to use in Design & Technology such as: fabric swatches, sticks, lace, string, wool, paint, pencils, glue, sponges/ printing equipment, beads, buttons, cotton wool, card decals and clay.
• Equipment for the art lesson suitable for the chosen skill focus such as pencils, paints or watercolours.
• Writing equipment.
• Access to a rehearsal space suitable for practical dance and drama.
• Copies of the selected worksheets for students to use during lesson time.

Optional resources to obtain prior to delivery:

• The original children’s story The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen available from most major publication retailers.
• Post-it notes for drama role on the wall exercise.

Who are the characters? Where is the story set? What should I look out for?

Director and choreographer Arthur Pita answers some key questions about The Little Match Girl in this 5 minute introduction.

Here’s a handy glossary of words featured in this video.

Choreographer:
Makes up the dance for the dancers to perform.

Director:
Is in charge of the creative vision of the production; they work on bringing the whole idea to life.

Dickensian:
Refers to something similar to the novels by the author Charles Dickens. This may be something similar to the environments within this time era or the topics that Dickens wrote about like poverty or injustice.

Optimistic:
Being confident or hopeful about something.

Downtrodden:
Being treated badly by people with more power than you.

Elaborate:
Detailed and complicated designs.