Mama Bird and Her Babies

Mama Bird was looking for a place to make her nest. She looked all over and finally found the perfect place---a hole high up in a tree.

She carefully made a nest from.... (ask audience what birds use)
and filled it up with soft..... (ask audience what birds use to make a soft lining in a nest)

Then she laid 3 eggs and sat on them for a long, long time.
One day she felt something and tap, tap, tap, one bird poked its head out.
Tap, tap, tap, the second bird poked its head out.
Tap, tap, tap, the third bird poked its head out.

Mama Bird sat on her babies to keep them warm and she fed them what baby birds really like.......(ask audience what that is and someone always says "Worms!")
Yes! Worms----regurgitated worms!

Well, those birds eat a lot and they grew and grew and grew till one day they were big enough to come out of their nest and learn to fly!
Oh, oh. The three baby birds had grown so big that they couldn't get out! So.......

Mama Bird asked the woodpecker if he/she* would peck a hole big enough so that her babies could come out and learn to fly and woodpecker said, "No, why should I?"

So... Mama Bird asked the snake if he/she would bite the big toe of woodpecker so woodpecker would peck a hole big enough so that her babies could come out and learn to fly and snake said, "No, why should I?"

So... Mama Bird asked the elephant if he/she would step on the tail of snake so the snake would bite the big toe of woodpecker so woodpecker would peck a hole big enough so that her babies could come out and learn to fly and elephant said, "No, why should I?"

So... Mama Bird asked the mouse if he/she would run up the trunk of elephant and tickle him/her so elephant would step on the tail of snake so the snake would bite the big toe of woodpecker so woodpecker would peck a hole big enough so that her babies could come out and learn to fly and mouse said, "No, why should I?"

So... Mama Bird asked the cat if he/she would chase the mouse up the trunk of elephant and tickle him/her so elephant would step on the tail of snake so the snake would bite the big toe of woodpecker so woodpecker would peck a hole big enough so that her babies could come out and learn to fly and cat said, "Oh! I love to chase mice."

So... Cat chased the mouse up elephant's trunk tickling elephant and elephant stepped on the tail of snake and snake bit the big toe of woodpecker and woodpecker pecked a bigger hole and Mama Bird's three babies came out and they learned how to fly.

*Note: Animal's gender depends on the participant. Also, I have the participants make movements that are common for these animals. For the woodpecker I have a wood clacker the child can use.
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Contributed by
Marcia Gutiérrez

[A Sri Lankan Folktale adapted by Marcia Gutiérrez, Quilted Tales, from Judy Sierra's book Multicultural Folktales for the Feltboard and Reader's Theater (J398.2 Sierra). It's a chain tale and I use it as one of my bilingual stories changing the carpenter to a woodpecker so the child can use a clacker to make the woodpecker sounds. It's great for participation and I have used it with children of all ages in family settings. I have found that picking the child or adult who is to play an animal as I tell the story works much better than asking for volunteers before I begin. It's also a surprise for the participant for I have them make the movement of the animal before they themselves know what they are.]