The Man the Horse the Ox and the Dog

STORY OVERVIEW

• Title and Moral: The Man the Horse the Ox and the Dog - "Every age of life has its own gifts and faults."
• Plot Summary: A man takes in a cold horse, ox and dog and feeds them well. To repay him they share out the years of his life, so the young are wild like the horse, grown people work like the ox, and an old man snaps and loves his fireside like the dog.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Retell how the man helped the animals and how they repaid him.
• Identify which animal fills each part of life and what that part is like.
• Compare the gifts and faults of each age, using words from the story.

WORDS TO TEACH FIRST

• shelter: a safe, warm place out of bad weather.
• repay: to give something back for a kindness.
• nature: what someone is really like inside.
• headstrong: set on doing what you want.
• fireside: the warm place beside a fire.

TEXT QUESTIONS

1. How did the man treat the animals? Sample answer: He said "Come in, all of you", lit a fire to warm them, and gave them oats, hay and "meat from his own table".
2. How did the animals plan to repay him? Sample answer: They said they "would share out the years of the man's life", and each would fill a part with his own nature.
3. Why does the dog fit old age in this story? Sample answer: The story says "an old man so often snaps and growls, and loves his own fireside, and barks at strangers at the gate", just as a dog does.

EXIT TICKET

Printed or on the board: Finish the sentences. "The ___ took the man's ___ years. One gift of those years is ___. One fault of those years is ___."

SUPPORT AND STRETCH

• Support: Read the Easier version with these pupils and ask them to draw the horse, the ox and the dog and match each one to young, grown-up or old. Ask them to say one thing each animal does.
• On level: Place and mark the phrases with your group, then write the exit ticket with the story's own words.
• Stretch: The story has no animal for the very first years of life. Choose an animal for them, and write the line the story would use: "And that is why ..."

ENGLISH LEARNERS

Act out "shiver", "snap" and "growl" with the class, and show the three ages with a timeline drawing. Give the frame: "The ___ is like ___ because ___." Pupils say it to a partner before they write.

Comprehension

1. The cold came down hard that winter, and they asked for shelter.
2. The horse had oats, the ox had hay and the dog had meat from the man's own table.
3. They would share out the years of his life, and each would fill his part with his own nature.
4. The ox took the middle years. Grown people work hard, save and count what they have.
5. He snaps and growls, loves his own fireside and barks at strangers at the gate.

Vocabulary

1. C
2. D
3. A
4. E
5. B

Writing Task

A good answer names one animal and its years, and gives one gift and one fault that come from the story's words.