You are judged by the company you keep.
Moral of "The Farmer and the Stork" from Aesop's Fables
Little Bobby Barker was the nicest boy you would ever meet. His parents always used to say, "Well we have just had the best time with Little Bobby." His favorite activities include walking his neighbors dogs for them and baking cookies with his mom for his teachers. Little Bobby always seemed to be helpful and kind and he was never dishonest. But one day, Little Bobby learned that its not always about who you are, but sometimes its about the people you choose to be around.
Timmy Smith was not a good little boy like Little Bobby was. He was never kind and always dishonest with his friends and his parents and his teachers. Timmy liked to push littler kids down on the playground and he liked to call kids mean names behind their backs. Little Bobby had even heard teachers calling Timmy a "trouble maker" when they thought that he wasn't listening. But Little Bobby did not care. He was determined to become Timmy's friend because he knew there was a nice kid in there somewhere.
One chilly morning Little Bobby walked straight up to Timmy and just said, "Hello Timmy. I would like to be your friend," in the straightforward way that only kindergartners really can. The trouble making fleck in Timmy's eye shone and devious thoughts came to his mind. Timmy knew that Little Bobby was the best kid in their grade and that all of the teachers loved him. Timmy began to hatch a plan to get Little Bobby in some trouble and he knew just how to do it.
"Hi Bobby! I would love to be your friend! We should hang out at recess, I know just what we can do!" exclaimed Timmy. Little Bobby was so excited he immediately agreed and they decided to meet at the big yellow slide at the beginning of recess.
As soon as Little Bobby got to the big yellow slide he felt like something might be askew. But Timmy ran up and shouted, "Come with me!" excitedly, so Little Bobby just followed after. Soon they were in the teacher's lounge and Little Bobby knew that was wrong.
"Aren't we not allowed in here, Timmy?" Little Bobby timidly asked.
"Mrs. Burth said I was allowed in here anytime," he replied!
Little Bobby was nervous but he just whispered, "okkkaaayyyy."
Before he knew what was going on, Mrs. Burth came storming in as soon as Timmy was stealing her favorite, prize winning apples she grew right at home.
"TIMMY, you rotten little trouble maker put those DOWN! And, oh my lord, BOBBY, WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"
Photo taken by Eric Castro (November 2008)
Source: Flickr
As they walked to the principle's office, Little Bobby hung his head in shame. This was the day he learned his greatest lesson. When Little Bobby protested the principle's punishment of a week of suspension because he had always been so good, the principle replied, "You are judged by the company you keep, Bobby."
Author's Note: I based this story off of the fable, The Farmer and the Stork, which is a fable by Aesop about a stork being punished when it flies to a farm with some cranes that try to steal from the farmer. I loved the moral that came with this story, that's why I chose to begin and end the story with it, and I felt like it was such a great lesson to teach. I wanted to tell this story with human characters, but I wanted to keep it in a children's age group so that the purpose of the fable, to teach children the morals of the stories, was still there. I just sort of wrote this as I went because it felt more natural that way. I liked being able to teach a moral to a child using a character their age with experiences they can relate to. I wrote the end very rushed and quick because I felt like it would feel rushed to Bobby when it was happening, like he didn't really know what was going on. I thought it would be cool to change the tone of the story as Bobby's emotions changed because of what happens in the story.
Bibliography Info:
"The Farmer and the Stork" illustrated by Milo Winter, from The Aesop for Children (1919).
I found your story very entertaining! I work with children at an after school program and could see this happening as I read the story. I liked that you chose to use human characters to retell the story to make the moral more realistic. I think many of the Aesop fables could be retold using human characters because they are often lessons we learn the hard way.
ReplyDeleteI loved this story! I tried to write a kindergarten story myself (it was terrible) but yours is wonderful! It's cute and entertaining and the moral is still there. For me trying to reinvent a story to tell a moral is really difficult to do, especially to make a new story that is cute or really fun to read. Five stars!
ReplyDeleteHi Ann Marie!
ReplyDeleteI really thought that you had a wonderful rendition of the original story. I also chose an Aesop fable for my story. I think it is fun to teach the same lesson by telling it in a different way. Your choice in characters and plot line was very creative! I like how you chose to use human characters instead of animals. It made the story relatable to an actual human situation. I think it was smart to have the character be young children too, so it could still pertain to the same audience.
The story was very easy to read and kept me engaged the whole time. I think breaking up your story into several smaller paragraphs was very effective. Sometimes a large block of text with no breaks an be intimidating to the reader! Also, your use of dialogue was very effective. You made the story seem realistic. You used capitalization as well as exaggerated words to get your point across.
Also, your links all seemed to be working and your format was appropriate and enjoyable to look at.
Great job!
Hey Ann Marie!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your story! I love they way that you took an old fable and turned it into a more modern version that kids could learn from! I feel like because of the way old fables are written that it can be very hard for kids to learn the moral from them. The way you rewrote this one made it very easy to understand! I also love the dialogue in this. It is very kindergartenesque and I can recall having conversations like “let’s be friends. Meet me at the big yellow slide(only it was red on our playground)” when I was a kid. You did a great job making that believable.
I love that you broke this up into smaller chunks to make it easier to read. I also love how relevant your picture is to the story. And the way it is placed is like you are looking through the glass at Bobby as he is getting in trouble! I like it!
Great job!
I really enjoyed this story!
ReplyDeleteThe Farmer and The Stork was one of my favorite of Aesop's fables and you did such a wonderful rendition of it here! The flow of the story was really well done, the imagery was subtle but strong enough to dress the set. I found myself feeling so bad for little Bobby! Hopefully he didn't get into too much trouble.
Again, this was very well done, thank you for sharing!