Fables

Bee-Keeper and the Bees:

This story is about a Bee-Keeper and his Bee’s he looks after to make him honey every month and in returns gives the Bees a home. One day the Bee-Keeper went to bed early. A Thief found his way into an apiary during tonight when the Bee-keeper was sleeping, and stole all the honey.

When the Keeper woke up and found the hives empty, he was very much upset and stood staring at them for some time. Before long the bees came back from gathering honey and finding their hives overturned and the Keeper standing by, they made for him with their stings thinking the Bee-keeper had broken there home and had taken their honey early.

The Bee’s all stung the Bee-Keeper until he cried, "You ungrateful scoundrels, you let the thief who stole my honey get off scot-free, and then you go and sting me who have always taken such care of you!" The moral of the story is, "Things are not always what they seem."

Suitability:

This story is suitable for young children as it has good themes for young children like animals and a moral to its story. There are simple characters to this story so that the children could easily understand the characters without getting confused, this story also contains animals which young children aged 5-7 would enjoy. The story also has an important moral the children to learn as it is “things are not always what they seem” which is good for young children to learn so they don’t jump to conclusions in their everyday life’s. There is also a lesson for the children to learn from the thief as it would teach the children not to steal because of the damage it could causes to other people.

This story could be told through a narrator and the rest of us acting out the story through movement by showing how the Bee act in their hives as well as a movement piece for when the Bee-keeper is stung by the Bees. We could also show our story by using cheerful music for when the bees go out hunting for honey as well as physical movement to create the flowers the bees get the pollen.

The Old Lion and the Fox:

An old Lion, whose teeth and claws were so worn that it was not so easy for him to get food as in his younger days, pretended that he was sick. He took care to let all his neighbours know about it, and then lay down in his cave to wait for visitors. And when they came to offer him their sympathy, he ate them up one by one. The Fox came too, but he was very cautious about it. Standing at a safe distance from the cave, he inquired politely after the Lion's health. The Lion replied that he was very ill indeed, and asked the Fox to step in for a moment. But Master Fox very wisely stayed outside, thanking the Lion very kindly for the invitation. The fox saw the tracks led into the den and not away, so he then tricked the lion into closing his eyes and rescued the animals trapped in the cave. The moral of the story is, “Using your head keeps you from making foolish or disastrous mistakes.”

Suitability:

This story is also suitable for young children as this story is about animals which young children aged 5-7 will enjoy, the story is also unrealistic which means children will enjoy it more as it will entertain there imagination. The characters of the story are interesting like the old lion tricking other animals into his home so he could eat them, I like this because I think it can offer an interesting idea for a performance where we could see several animals fall for the same trick of the lion which would be a piece of repetition and would help show a young audience that the lion is a bad animal and is good a tricking others. The story then shows us a smart fox which we could show by him outsmarting the lion which I think little children would enjoy as it would show them the benefits of learning so they could become smart. The morale of the story is also a good thing for little children to learn as it will help them use their head more instead of being silly.

The hare and the tortoise:

A hare boasts to the other animals about how fast he can run. When none of them responds initially to his challenge for a race, he taunts them that they are too scared even to try.

When tortoise speaks up and takes on the challenge, the hare scoffs that he won’t even waste his time racing the slowest creature in the world. Eventually though, he agrees to the race in a week's time. The tortoise spends the week in training, but continues to move very slowly, and the other animals wonder if the race is a good idea. Nevertheless, there is a large crowd of animals on the day of the race. The race begins and the hare roars off, while the tortoise plods along slow and steady. Deciding he is so far ahead the hare decides to have a sleep in the sun. However, when he wakes, the tortoise is nearing the finish line and takes and unlikely victory. The moral of the story is, “Slow and steady wins the race.”

Suitability:

This story is suitable for young children ages 5-7 as the story is unrealistic which will feed the young children’s imagination and with the characters being animals’ helps to make the story creative as animals don’t act like humans so children would enjoy it more. For the story we could do a movement/ dance for the race between the Hare and the Tortoise showing how the Hare overpowers the Tortoise at first but then gets cocky which causes him to lose the race to the tortoise. The morale of the story is suitable and useful for young children to learn as the moral is “Slow and steady wins the race.” This is a useful morale for children to know as it teaches them not to rush anything they work on, so that they can get the best out of what they have worked on. This story would also help us explore creating environments using our body so we could create the trees, flowers and other inanimate objects.