A Central African Tale

The Rabbit Steals the Elephant's Dinner

"Fables are stories using animals to explore human nature and are some of the oldest in world literature. With its beastly humans and all-to-human beasts, a fable is a story with a sting in its tale."

NOTE FOR TEACHERS

This is part of a 4th grade unit on fairy tales/ fables pertaining to Central Africa. It is an individual lesson plan dealing with geography and the moral of the story through language arts activities. In order to conduct the lesson teachers should be familiar with the fable The Rabbit Steals the Elephant's Dinner and the geography of Central Africa. At the end, students will be able to decipher the moral of the story.

oasis.gif

Materials

  • A copy of the fable for each child
  • a map of Africa
  • Bazooka cartoons (from gum wrappers)
  • the Peters Map of Africa
  • poster paper and markers

    Anticipatory Set

    Activities to do before the actual story

  • Ask students if they have ever seen The Lion King
    • Description of landscape (African prarie, animals...)
    • Characters' names (Simba, Nala, Mufasa, Rafiki)
    • Tell them that today they will be reading a story from places and names similiar to it

  • Show a map of Africa
    • Show a Peters Map in comparison
    • How do the maps differ?
    • Why is the map skewed?

  • Introduce the fable
    • Give a definition of a fable (a story based on human nature where the characters are animals, usually one-dimensional, but they learn an important lesson in life, aka the moral)

    Teaching and Learning Sequence

  • Have volunteers read the story
  • Discuss the names of the characters
    • Kalulu the rabbit
    • Polo the elephant
    • Ntambo the lion
    • Mbo the elephant
    • Nkuvu the tortoise

  • Break off into even groups (of fours?)
    • Pass out a Bazooka gum wrapper cartoon to each group
    • Talk about the moral at the bottom, definition of a moral (lesson learned through a story)

    • Look to the last paragraph of the fable-- Try to find the moral(s) of the fable (Better to work for food than to steal it; though a thief may escape for a time, he will at last surely be caught)

    • In the groups have them make a Bazooka cartoon for the fable using paper and markers, including the moral at the bottom, too.

    Lesson Closure

  • Come back into whole group and share the group work
  • Assign homework: Using one of the following morals, write a paragraph:
    • "Necessity is the mother of invention."
    • "The early bird gets the worm."
    • "Do not pretend to be something that you're not."
    • "Slowly but surely."

    Evaluation

  • Assessment should be based on group work and homework, figuring into their language arts grade.

    Home