The Two Travelers and the Axe

STORY OVERVIEW

• Title and Moral: The Two Travelers and the Axe - "Share your good luck if you want help with your bad."
• Plot Summary: One man finds an axe and says, "I have found an axe!" His friend tells him to say "We," but he walks on with it on his shoulder. When the owner comes running, the man says, "We are in trouble," and his friend tells him to say "I."

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Retell the story in order, from finding the axe to the friend's last words.
• Identify when the man says I and when he says We, and why he changes.
• Support an opinion about whether the friend is fair, with words from the story.

WORDS TO TEACH FIRST

• shining: bright and giving back light.
• blade: the sharp, cutting part of a tool.
• handle: the part of a tool that you hold.
• owner: the person something belongs to.
• pale: with very little color in your face.

TEXT QUESTIONS

1. What does the finder say when he picks up the axe? Sample answer: He says, "I have found an axe!" He says "I," not "We."
2. Why does the man change to "We" when the owner comes? Sample answer: He is scared and wants his friend to share the trouble, so he says, "We are in trouble!"
3. What does the friend mean by "What was right then is right now"? Sample answer: If the axe was only the man's when it was good news, then the trouble is only his too.

EXIT TICKET

Pupils finish this sentence: "The friend told him to say 'I' because ____."

SUPPORT AND STRETCH

• Support: Read the Easier version and let pupils hold up an I or We card at each spoken line. They then act it in threes with the cards.
• On level: Pupils take part in the Fair line and write the exit ticket.
• Stretch: Pupils write what the friend could have done if he had wanted to help after all, and explain whether that would have been fair.

ENGLISH LEARNERS

Point to yourself for I, then sweep your arm around a partner for We, with pupils copying. Give the frames "I have found ____" and "We have found ____," using classroom objects.

Comprehension

1. They found an axe with a sharp blade and a smooth handle.
2. He said, "I have found an axe!" and his friend told him to say, "We have found an axe."
3. The owner of the axe came running, red in the face and waving his fists.
4. He said, "We are in trouble!"
5. He told him to say, "I am in trouble," because what was right then is right now.

Vocabulary

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

Writing Task

A good answer shows that if the man had shared the find, his friend would have had a reason to stand by him when the owner came. It keeps to the same people and the same axe.