POEMS and MUSICALS in the classroom: CATS: SKIMBLESHANKS the Railway Cat – intermediate / advanced / teens / adults

SKIMBLESHANKS in CATS, the 1998 musical film of, Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical CATS

Poems I find are difficult to present in an appealing way, more so if they are for students of English.  Many years ago I attempted a project fueled by my enthusiasm for the MUSICAL CATS  in which I presented one T.S. Eliot’s CATS poem a week with comprehension questions of various nature.  In those days we listened to the song on cassette but I would recommend showing a You Tube Video to them on the IWB to make it more exciting.

For intermediate/advanced students I find that SKIMBLESHANKS the Railway Cat – Musical:  CATS is rather fast as it mimics the speed of the train but the poem/song also gives us the opportunity to discuss TRAVELLING BY TRAIN in the past and today on normal trains and luxury trains like the ORIENT EXPRESS.  It can also arouse curiosity to watch the entire musical and can lead to interesting discussions.  I plan on occasionally posting poems from my CATS Project in the hope they may be of interest to students and teachers and would welcome any feedback.

You can download the worksheets to the song below.  Feel free to delete or translate the Italian into another language.

Hope its another interesting way of learning English!
Susan

cats_poems-t.s.eliot_-_skimbleshanks_-_students_copy.docx
File Size:	44 kb
File Type:	docx

Download File

---

cats_poems-t.s.eliot_-_skimbleshanks_-_teachers_copy.docx
File Size:	38 kb
File Type:	docx

Download File

---

Also check out MY PLAYLIST
for Susan's ESL Learning Videos (Chants & Songs)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrvV_PywFOlxgfR5RpMw7rLsI6ai3yHai