The sun shines on an ordinary small town. You know, the kind of town where most people know each other, but many keep to themselves. But on this day, a strange van stops in the town park, and a small family comes out with a very special stone …
The girl helps them collect various additional ingredients in the village.
Some villagers are happy to share more ingredients, some don’t give away any ingredients, and some have no food to share but can share musical instruments or bowls and spoons.
In the end, everyone participates in different ways, shares what they have, and together they create a wonderful soup that everyone shares in the park in the middle of the village.
This story is a variation of a traditional folk tale that can be found in different versions throughout Europe. The stranger or strangers coming to town, are in some stories a group as is the case in this version, but in other stories it is a lone monk, soldier or vagabond. In Northern Europe, the stone is most often a nail, while in other countries it can be completely different things. But we share the tradition of the basic story.
If you want to further explore this story with your pupils, we think that for example the PLACES Playful activity cards “Playing with Variations of a Story”, “Stories into movements” and “Working together” work particularly well.
