Confiabilidad

Stories with Children.

Elementary

6.4 The donkey and the little dog

A man has a donkey and a litde dog.

The donkey lives in a warm, clean stable and it has hay and water. The litde dog lives in the house. It sits on the man’s knees in the evening and sleeps in a chair in front of the fire in the night. It eats good meat and biscuits, and the man gives it food from the table.

‘It’s not fair!’ says the donkey. ‘I want to five in the house.’

One day the donkey leaves the stable and goes into the house. It plays in the house. It breaks the furniture and the glasses and the cups and the plates. It sits on the man’s knee!

‘Get out of the house!’ shouts the man. ‘You have got a nice stable!’

What is good for a litde dog may not be good for a donkey.

Ideas

This is another story about an animal wanting to five where it is inappropriate, plus the funny things that happen.

- Acting out

- Some children describe habitats; other children have to guess which animal lives there. Examples:

high trees, jungle = monkeys river, swamp = crocodile

woods, gardens, fields, and farms = fox cushion, bed, kitchen, garden = cat

6.5 Who is my friend?

Two boys, Frank and Joe, are walking along a road. They are friends.

194 MORE S T O R I E S A N D I D E A S brainstorm words and phrases on the board which describe people. Examples: strong, handsome, rich, intelligent, funny, kind, he helps people, etc. Then each child makes his or her own list, putting the words in order from important to not important. They discuss their choices in groups of four.

- The children rewrite the story with five changes. They read it out to their neighbour. The neighbour tries to identify which bits have been changed.

MORE S T O R I E S A N D I D E A S 195

Then he watched all the people run up the mountain from the town. the people. Retell the story with the children playing their parts. some of the words. See if the children can guess the missing words.

196 MORE S TO R I E S A N D I D E A S

some simple sentences, and write them on the board, for example:

Crow, crow, eat your cheese!

Crow, crow, don’t listen to the fox, don’t listen to the fox!

Fox, fox, go away, go away!

Fox, fox, you’re not kind, you’re not kind.

Stupid bird, stupid bird!

Act out the story using three children: one for the narrator, one for the fox, and one for the crow. The other children can be trees and whisper their commentary as if it is a breeze through their branches.

6.8 Ghosts

A man lives in an old house. One evening he is reading a book.

He puts his glasses on the table.

The first ghost takes the glasses.

The man says, ‘Where are my glasses?’

He looks for them but he can’t find them.

He puts his apple on the table.

The second ghost takes the apple.

The man says, ‘Where is my apple?’

He looks for his apple but he can’t find it.

He puts his book on the table.

The third ghost takes the book.

The man says, ‘Where is my book?’

He looks for his book but he can’t find it.

It is midnight. The man goes to sleep. He snores very loudly.

The ghosts don’t like his snoring. They run out of the house.

They leave his glasses, his apple, and his book on the table.

Ideas

- The form of this story invites ‘listen and act’ and would be an amusing video for the children to make. Note that even a child can make a big snoring noise by snoring into a large tin can.

- The children could add extra things for the ghosts to steal.

- We don’t know what the man, the house, or the ghosts look like, nor what season it is, what the weather is like, nor where the house is. Discuss this with the class. You could make a big picture together.

- The children can produce a ghost book with one page from each child with his or her own invention of what the ghosts

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could do to frighten the man. Here is a possible ghost shape for the book, with the pages and cover cut to shape:

- In pairs, the children draw their idea of a ghost and write about where it is and what it does to frighten or annoy people.

The drawings can be displayed on the wall.

I like skiing but I am not very good. Once, I went to the top of a mountain on a ski lift. It was foggy. I couldn’t see very well.

The snow was very icy and hard. It was too difficult for me so I decided to slalom very slowly. I ski’d from side to side.

Then some friends came. They stopped and waited for me. I told them I was frightened and they laughed and said, ‘Follow us.

You will be O K .’

So I followed them into the fog and we went very fast. Suddenly they turned to the right but I couldn’t! I ski’d straight on! I went up a little hill, and then flew through the air, and then

Pre-intermediate

6.9 The skiing accident

198 MORE S T O R I E S A N D I D E A S kangaroos sometimes jump across the road.

The family were driving along through the desert when a wife: ‘Quick! Take a photograph!’

But the kangaroo wasn’t dead! It was only unconscious and when the man picked it up it woke up again. It opened its eyes and then jumped away across the desert! It was wearing the man’s jacket! And the man had his spectacles, his car keys, his money, and his passport in the jacket! And they never saw the kangaroo again!

MORE S T O R I E S A N D I D E A S 199 lake. He always bought himself a coffee and a doughnut.

One day he jogged into the park and another jogger knocked into say honest people must fight crime!’

The other jogger was only 30 metres ahead. The first jogger ran after him, hit him on the shoulder, and said, ‘Give us the

money!’ The second jogger said, ‘OK! Just stay cool! Take it easy! Take it easy!’

Then the second jogger gave the first jogger a five-dollar bill.

The second jogger then ran away as fast as he could!

This is another of those urban myths or modem legends (see 6.10, ‘The kangaroo in the jacket’). People tell this type of story which we often think we understand a situation and think someone has done wrong to us and even take action. Later we find we are wrong. It happens every day in school.