A teaching activity: Last-line race

When I tell this story in school or in teacher-training workshops, I often use it to overcome hesitation about speaking.

After telling the tale, I write, with the students prompting me, a skeleton of the sentence on the blackboard:
The cat started to catch the rat.
rat → gnaw → rope
rope → hang → butcher
butcher → kill → ox
ox → drink → water
water → quench → fire
fire → burn → stick
stick → beat → dog
dog → bite → pig
So piggy did jump over the stile.
And the old woman did get home before midnight.

Students are partnered off. They establish who is A and who is B.
I point out that each part of the last line (with the exception of the final two sentences) has two verbs: started to plus infinitive.
Together, I lead them through a choral rendition of the last line, pointing to the nouns and the verbs as we go.
I also point out that there is a logical thread to the characters and their actions: e.g. butcher → kill → ox → water → drink. Because of this, it is easy to remember where one is in the thread and so one does not need to read it on the blackboard or a piece of paper. Moreover, if we do read it, that will slow down the telling, which will not help us win the Last-Line Race.
Then I clean the blackboard!

Now I explain that all the A partners will tell their partner the last line, beginning with
The cat started to … and ending with
And the old woman did get home before midnight.

As soon as someone has finished, they must put up their hand.

I show them my official Olympic timekeeper’s watch, give them On your marks, get set, GO! and attempt to time as best I can.

When the A’s have finished, the B’s have a go.
I usually repeat this once or twice as they tend to get a lot faster.

If desired, the fastest A and fastest B can come out for the Great Olympic Last-line Final in front of the class.

Language note:

I usually point out that the final two sentences use did + infinitive to emphasise the verb.
Students can be encouraged to show this by clapping their hands on the did.

The teaching activity is © Richard Martin, 1994.
Permission for non-commercial classroom use with citation is granted.

About the tale and a note on political correctness

The story is numbered AaTh 2030 in Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson’s international index of tale-types The Types of the Folktale.
To see how wide-spread it is, go to this page on Distributed Proofreaders which has versions in 26 different languages.

This version, the one I remember from my own English childhood, is found in the collection by Joseph Jacobs English Fairy Tales(1890). As you see, it involves beating, killing and hanging.
In teacher-training workshops for primary schools in Germany and Singapore I have discussed the acceptability or otherwise of using this traditional version with young children. The clear consensus of opinion was that they did not feel this was a problem in such an obviously stylised traditional tale.
But if you feel uncomfortable about it, there are other versions around which do not involve such contentious actions.