Rainbows meet Cinderella
All was quiet at Shibden Hall when the Rainbows from Halifax South went to visit Cinderella on the afternoon of Sunday 26th November.
“Do you think we should knock on the door to see if there is anybody at home”? I asked. “Yes” they all shouted, so one of our Rainbows rapped on the door, very loudly, with the metal doorknocker and what a surprise we all had when The Fairy Godmother opened the door to let us into the Hall.
Fairy Godmother welcomed all the Rainbows and said how nice it was to see so many bright smiley faces on a very cold but sunny day and as we had come to see Cinderella would we be kind enough to help her with all of her housework that she had to do so that she could go to the ball.Well, as you can imagine Rainbows being Rainbows jumped at the chance to do their ‘good turns’ and help Cinderella with her housework so we divided into three groups.
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The first group went off with Buttons to the stables to look for some mice and lizards that Fairy Godmother could turn into Coachmen and horses. We searched around all the old carriages, looked into the barns, the apothecary’s shop, the Coopers workshop where they made all the metal-work for the carriages and horses shoes, the wheelwright’s workshop where they made the wooden wheels and built new carriages or mended the buildings, we even looked into the brewery were they used to make beer. After we had found the mice and lizards we had time for an art lesson and were given paper and pencils and drew our favourite old carriages.
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The second group went away with Cinderella and helped with some of her jobs while she explained how she had to do all of her work with old fashioned equipment because there was no electricity, so she had to use dolly tub’s and washboards to do the washing, flat irons that you heat on the fire to iron all of the clothes, Cinderella even had to curl the hair of the ugly sisters with curling tongs that had to be heated on the fire, warm their beds with hot water bottles that had to be filled with very hot water. Cinderella also showed us how she had to beat all the carpets, to get the dust and dirt out, with a cane carpet beater and also showed us lots of other things including how she loved to toast the bread in front of the fire with a toasting fork.
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The third group stayed with Fairy Godmother and the Rainbows polished the stairs and silver spoons with dusters, went up stairs to see the bedrooms where the ugly sisters slept and they even saw the chamber pots what were put under the beds so that the ugly sisters could go to the toilet in the middle of the night – Fairy Godmother said that it was Cinderella’s job to empty out the camber pots in the mornings – sometimes when there was nobody about she would throw the contents of the chamber pots out of the window – but that we shouldn’t tell anyone – because Cinderella would get into big trouble if her step-mother found out, so we promised not to tell.
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The third group also went into the Nursery to see the toys and Cinderella said that she would creep up there to be by herself sometimes.
When we had found all of the things for Cinderella to go to the ball, we all helped Fairy Godmother by saying some magic words like hocus-pocus and fliperty-jiberty-doo. She waved her magic wand and when Cinderella came back down stairs she had turned into a beautiful princess!
Yvonne Tooby
(9.12.2008)
Here are some comments from Highroad Well Rainbows
Georgia age 6 - 'I liked playing in the Play room - emptying the chamber pots - washing up!'
Abigail age 6 - 'I liked to look at Cinderella's toys and looking at how they make coffee and how they make food - The coffee smelt very nice!'
Amy age 5 - 'I went to Shibden- I liked looking at the toys - The sisters are cruel
- She is pretty Cinderella.'
Caitlin age 7 - 'ALL OF IT' - clearing up & looking at the toys.'
Elise age 6 - 'I liked it at Shibden Hall - The step mother locked Cinderella in the attic
- The ugly sisters are horrid & cruel.'
Hannah age 5 - 'I liked tidying up it was fun!'
Tracey Bottomley
Rainbow Guider
(12.12.2008)