Traditional Tales

VIPERS
Comprehension Pack
 STAGE 2
Unit focus: Fairy Tales
Text focus: Narrative (580L)

The Frog Prince

Many years ago, there lived a prince who was
INFERENCE FOCUS
unkind. One day, a travelling witch cast a curse 1. Why do you think the witch cast a
on him. He was transformed into a frog with a curse on the prince?
swish of her wand. She told him that he would
2. Why would a good deed turn him
only be turned back when he was thanked for
back?
a good deed.
3. Why was Henry so upset at the
The prince had a loyal servant named Henry.
curse?
He was so upset at his master’s curse that the
witch was worried his heart would break. With 4. Why was his life as a frog lonely?

another flick of her wand, she encased his 5. Why did the princess throw the frog
heart in bands of iron. away?

For many years, the prince lived a lonely life

as a frog with only Henry to keep him company. They spent their days around a large
pond at the foot of a castle. Inside the castle lived a princess who was spoilt and as
just as rude as the prince had been.

One sunny morning, the princess was playing with a ball of solid gold. It had been
a gi� from a suitor, but she had taken it and turned him away. On this day, she was
throwing it high into the air and trying to catch it. Unfortunately, she missed the ball,
and it rolled down the bank and into the muddy pond.

Seeing a chance to be helpful, Henry told the princess that his friend could help her.
When the Frog Prince hopped into sight, she screamed and threw him against a tree.

“My lady,” Henry shouted, “that frog is no ordinary frog. He was once the prince of

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these lands.”

The princess didn’t believe him. “If he was once a man, then let him fetch me my ball
of gold.”

Without hesitating, the prince jumped into the pond and swam to the bottom. He
picked the ball of gold up in his mouth and swam back to shore. When the princess
saw what he had done, she was so happy she bent down and gave him a kiss on the
head. “Thank you,” she said.

Henry and the prince jumped as glittery stars circled their heads. When it had
disappeared, the frog was once again a prince and Henry’s heart from freed from its
iron cage. Hand in hand, the princess and the Frog Prince walked back to the castle
where they were married.

VIPERS QUESTIONS
V Which word means that his heart was covered in metal?

R What was her ball made from?

R What appeared above their heads when the prince turned back?

S Can you identify what happened first in the story: the princess kissing the frog
or the frog fetching the ball?
E Why did the author say the wand “swished”?

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 STAGE 2
Unit focus: Fairy Tales
Text focus: Narrative (550L)

Hansel and Gretel

Once upon a �me, there was a boy named
RETRIEVAL FOCUS
Hansel and a girl named Gretel. They were 1. What did the children never do?
both very naughty. They never did what their
2. What did they go looking for in the
parents told them.
forest?
One day, their family ran out of food. Their
3. What were the walls of the house
mother took them into the forest to hunt for
made of?
mushrooms. When they were far away from
home, she turned and ran away. She knew that 4. What did the old woman promise

there wasn’t enough food for the children at them was inside the house?

home, but there might be in the forest. 5. What did Gretel say they had seen in

The two children were annoyed by their the woods?

mother. Hansel thought he knew the way

home, but Gretel wasn’t sure. They tried their best but they were soon lost.

Just before the sun set, they stumbled upon a rather unusual house. The walls were
made of chocolate and delicious sweets. The roof was made of icing and toffee. They
were very hungry by this point and so they both ran straight to the house. It all tasted
delicious and soon they were full of sugar.

Suddenly, they heard a cackling laugh from the doorway. “Two more children for my
pot!” It was a horrible old woman. “There are even more sweets inside,” she said.

Hansel had always been greedier than Gretel, and he sped into the house. Gretel
followed him slowly. She didn’t like the look of the woman. By the �me she was in the
cottage, Hansel was already trapped in a cage. He was hanging above a boiling pot of

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water. The old woman was planning to eat him!

Gretel had a plan. She told the old woman that they had seen a dragon in the woods,
and he might burn down the cottage. The old woman looked worried and fled
outside. Quickly, Gretel reached up and released Hansel from his cage.

There was an oven on the other side of the cottage, facing the door. The oven was
very hot and now Hansel had an idea. He opened the oven wide and they both hid
behind the cottage door.

A few minutes later, the old lady burst into the cottage. Hansel and Gretel jumped out
from behind the door and pushed her into the open oven. They slammed the door
shut and quickly fled into the forest.

After a while, they found their way home. They told their mother and father about
the gingerbread cottage and they never went hungry again.

VIPERS QUESTIONS
I Why did Gretel enter the house slowly?

V Which word tells you that Hansel always wanted more food?

V Which word tells you that the woman came back into the house quickly?

S What did Hansel do for the first part of his plan?

P What do you think the family did so that they never went hungry again?

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 STAGE 2
Unit focus: Fairy Tales
Text focus: Narrative (600L)

Little Red Riding Hood

“Your old granny isn’t well,” Little Red Riding
VOCABULARY FOCUS
Hood’s mother told her. “Take this basket of 1. Find a word that tells you that the
food and make sure she is feeling better.” wolf was moving around in the forest.

Little Red Riding Hood was a good girl who 2. What does Little Red Riding Hood
did as she was told. She didn’t know that at say that tells you that the granny wasn’t
the same time, a big bad wolf was wandering feeling well?
in the forest. He was very hungry and very
3. Which word tells you how the wolf
grumpy.
moved into the cottage?
As luck would have it, the girl bumped into
4. Which word means that Little Red
the wolf halfway along the forest path. “Hello,
Riding Hood didn’t trust the wolf?
little girl,” he said with a grin. “Where are you
heading today?” 5. What does the word “outrage”
mean?
“I am off to take this basket of food to my
granny. She is feeling a bit under the weather.”

“What a good girl you are,” the wolf said. Red didn’t notice him licking his lips.
“Where does your granny live?”

“In the small cottage next to the stream. She’s very alone out there,” said Little Red
Riding Hood.

They said goodbye and were soon on their way. Unfortunately, the wolf knew a
shortcut, and he arrived long before the small girl. He slipped into Granny’s cottage
through an open window. Once inside, he swallowed her up whole, put on her
nightdress, and hid in her bed.

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When Little Red Riding hood knocked on the door a while later, the wolf told her to
come in.

“Why granny, what big eyes you have today,” she said curiously.

“All the better for seeing you with,” replied the wolf.

“And what a furry chin,” Little Red Riding Hood was suspicious.

“Erm… that’s part of my illness,” the wolf replied quickly.

“And I’m sure your teeth aren’t usually that sharp! You’re that horrible wolf from the
forest!” She ran from the cottage. Not far away was a woodcutter who heard her cries
for help. He sprinted over to the cottage and she explained what had happened.

“That’s an outrage!” he cried and

burst into the cottage with his axe.
Five minutes later he emerged again
with Little Red Riding Hood’s granny
behind him. Considering she’d just
been eaten, she seemed a lot better
than before. Although it was a
long time before she slept with the
window open again.

VIPERS QUESTIONS
R Where did Little Red Riding Hood bump into the wolf?

R What was next to the cottage?

I Why was it unfortunate that the wolf knew a shortcut?

I Why did Little Red Riding Hood speak curiously to the wolf?

S What happened when the woodcutter went into the cottage?

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 STAGE 2
Unit focus: Fairy Tales
Text focus: Narrative (640L)

The Pied Piper

Many years ago, there was a piper. He grew
RETRIEVAL FOCUS
up in a small town in Germany and often wore 1. In which country did the piper grow
clothes with a checkered pa�ern. This pa�ern up?
is often called pied, and so he became known
2. What type of pa�ern is also called
as the Pied Piper. For many years, he travelled
“pied”?
the country. It was said that his flute was
magical and would a�ract any thing that heard 3. What job was the Pied Piper famous

it. for?

Soon he became known as a famous rat 4. How much money did the Pied Piper

catcher. Towns and villages would pay him want from the mayor?

handsomely to use his flute to lead all of the 5. Find two places that the people
rats away. Nobody ever asked where he took found rats.
the rats. Back then, people were worried about
the plague. They were just glad to see the end of the rats. Nor did they ask what else
his pipe could be used to lure away.

One day, the people of Hamlin woke up to find that there were rats everywhere. They
were on the walls in the park. They were in the cellars. They were scurrying along the
roof of the town hall. The mayor wouldn’t stand for it. He sent out a message to the
Pied Piper and offered to pay him whatever he wanted to rid the town of the pests.

Sure enough, the piper soon arrived and spoke to the mayor. “It will cost you one
hundred gold pieces.”

“Of course,” said the mayor happily. “We will pay whatever it takes.”

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That night, the Pied Piper played a magical tune on his instrument. The people
heard the melody playing softly and slept peacefully. They awoke to find the town
completely free of rats.

At lunchtime, the piper made his way to the mayor and asked for his payment. Now
that the rats were gone, the mayor didn’t want to spend so much money. He refused.
The piper went away. He was very cross.

He returned to the mayor two more times that

day. Each time he asked for his payment. Each
time the mayor sent him away. That night, the
piper played his tune once more. This time, it
wasn’t the rats who followed him out of the city.
It was the town’s children.

The following day, the Pied Piper went to see the

mayor. This time he handed over one hundred
gold pieces. True to his word, the piper returned
each and every child unharmed.

VIPERS QUESTIONS
V What word means “to tempt them”?

V Find the paragraph that starts “That night…” Find a word that means the same
as “tune”.
I Why was the Pied Piper cross?

S What did the Pied Piper do to try to get his money in the end?

P What do you think the mayor did the next time they had rats?

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 STAGE 2
Unit focus: Fairy Tales
Text focus: Narrative (580L)

The Elves and the Shoemaker

Two hundred years ago, an old shoemaker
was worried. He didn’t have enough money to
pay his landlord, and he couldn’t afford to buy
food. He was a very good shoemaker, but he
was old and his fingers were tired. He couldn’t
make enough shoes any more.
One day, he realised that he only had one pair
of shoes left in his shop. The old shoemaker
was a kind man and didn’t like to see people
VOCABULARY FOCUS
1. Which word in the first paragraph
tells you how the shoemaker was
feeling?
2. What does the word “suffer” mean?
3. What does the word “staggering” tell
you about how the lady was moving?
4. Draw a picture of what a stout pair of

suffer. On that day, he saw a frail old lady boots might look like.

staggering through the snow with bare feet. 5. Write a word that means the
He rushed outside and gave her his final pair opposite of “crept”.
of shoes. Now he had no shoes and no money.
Luckily, he had just enough leather left to make
one more pair.

It was soon nearly his bedtime. He had cut the leather ready for the next day, and he
lay it down on the table. Throughout the night, he heard scu�ling and rustling noises
coming from the workshop. He assumed it was rats and went back to sleep.

In the morning, the leather had been turned into a bright new pair of shoes. These
shoes were so good that the man sold them for twice as much as he normally would.
He used the money to buy a li�le bit of food and some more leather. This time he had
enough to make two pairs of shoes.

During the night, he heard the same scu�ling and rustling sounds. When he woke up,
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there were two pairs of shiny new shoes. He sold the shoes and bought more food
and more leather.

That night, the old man decided to stay awake and see what happened. He was
delighted when he saw a group of three small elves scramble down the chimney.
They didn’t notice him in the corner. Silently, they took the leather and set to work. It
didn’t take long before three pairs of new shoes, and a pair of stout new boots were
sat on the table.

The old shoemaker crept to bed and woke his wife. He explained what he had seen,
and they both decided to make the elves a new set of clothes. They worked all
through the next day and left the clothes next to another sheet of leather.

Unfortunately, if you give elves clothes, then

you set them free. When they awoke the next
morning, the clothes were gone and the leather
hadn’t been touched. They never saw the elves
again.

VIPERS QUESTIONS
R How many pairs of shoes did the elves make on the second night?

I How did the man and his wife feel when the knew what the elves were doing?
How do you know?
S What did the man do after he saw the elves?

R Why did the elves disappear?

P What do you think happened to the shoemaker next?

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Answers:

1. Because he was unkind

2. The witch wanted him to be kind to people

3. He was worried for his master/the prince

4. He couldn’t talk to anybody and only had Henry for company

5. She didn’t want to be helped by a frog/she thought it was gross/unpleasant

V: Encased

R: Gold

R: Glittery stars

S: Fetching the ball

E: It sounds like the noise a wand would make/Onomatopoeia

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Answers:

1. What their parents told them

2. Mushrooms

3. Chocolate and (delicious) sweets

4. More sweets

5. A dragon

I: She was scared of the woman

V: Greedier

V: Burst

S: Opened the oven door

P: Ate the gingerbread cottage

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Answers:

1. Wandering

2. Under the weather

3. Slipped

4. Suspicious

5. Something is unacceptable or not right

R: Halfway along the forest path

R: A stream

I: It meant that he got there first

I: Something seemed different

S: He killed the wolf and set the granny free

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Answers:

1. Germany

2. Checkered

3. Being a rat catcher

4. One hundred gold pieces

5. The park, the cellars and the town hall

V: Lure

V: Melody

I: The mayor wouldn’t pay

S: Stole the children

P: Any prediction based around the idea of paying on time.

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Answers:

1. Worried

2. To be in pain or distress/upset

3. She was falling down or tripping. She was finding it difficult.

4. Ran, rushed, raced etc

R: Two

I: Grateful - They made them clothes

S: Went and told his wife

R: They gave them clothes which set them free

P: Any prediction with valid reasons - either he returned to being poor, or he had
enough shoes now to keep making money.

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