Strongest of Them All
Jack is cold - no wood for his fire.
Takes axe and goes to look for a tree.
Ice on ground.
Sees tree - smiles "I'm stronger than you".
Swings axe - but slips on ice - bangs head.
"Ice, you're strong - but sun is stronger - when he comes, you go away."
"Sun, you're strong - but cloud stronger."
"Cloud - wind stronger."
"Wind - mountain stronger."
"Mountain - tree is stronger (tree can grow on mountain but mountain can't grow on tree!)"
"Tree - I'm stronger - got my axe!"
Swings axe - but slips on ice - bangs head.
Watch this tale being told in a teacher-training workshop at Karlsruhe University of Education
I heard this tale as Jack Turnip from UK teller, Hugh Lupton.
It is now one of my favourites as a participation story with young learners and is the title story on the teaching video The Strongest of Them All.
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For those who are teachers: Telling stories in the classroom: basing language teaching on storytelling