Short Story one: The snake and the squirrel
Once upon a time, in a jungle there was huge tree. A squirrel and his family were living in one the branches of the trees. There were many other birds living in the same tree. One day they saw an old snake slowing crawling towards the tree. He went into a bush next to the tree. The squirrel and other birds living on the tree became alert. As the snake was their common enemy. But when they closely observed they learnt that the snake had become very old and also half blind. He was in a poor condition. The squirrel’s heart melted seeing the snake in that condition. He decided to help the snake. He thought if the other birds also agreed, they would help the snake by providing him food and shelter. He spoke to other birds and requested to support him. After thinking for a while, they all agreed. They approached the snake and invited him to stay with them on the same tree. As the snake did not have any friends, it was feeling lonely. So it was very happy to accept the invitation.
Days passed and the snake had become friends with all the birds in the tree. He was protecting the young ones in the absence of the older birds. One day a wicked cat saw the young birds on the tree and wanted to eat them. He started to observe the movements in the tree. He also learnt that the snake was blind and weak. So, he came up and started speaking nicely to the snake. without understanding the intentions of the cat, the snake also spoke to it well. The cat started visiting the tree regularly and gained the friendship of the snake.
one day when the snake was sleeping, the cat came up to the tree, ate all the younger birds and put the bones and feather into the snake’s hole and went away. When the birds came back, they were shocked to see the bones in the snake’s hole. The birds became furious and asked the snake to get out of the tree immediately. The snake was devastated. They also blamed the squirrel for insisting them to take such decision. The squirrel was warned and sent out to the next tree.
The snake was very sad that the birds did not trust him and felt guilty for putting the squirrel into such bad situation. But, an old owl sitting atop the tree had observed all this. The smart owl intervened and explained what had happened. The snake was not be blamed for harming the young birds but he dfenitely needed to be blamed for not understanding the cat’s true intentions.
The birds forgave the snake and the snake became a bit more cautious about whom he trusted
Parenting Takeaway
This is a good story to explain to kids about trust and how we must take our time and understand more about a person before making him our friend
Short Story Two: Story of sparrows
Once upon a time, in a town near the city of Bangalore, there lived a very big family of sparrows. There were around 40 of them living together in the bushes and thick shrubs and even in the attic of the houses in the town. These sparrows had been living in the same place for ages. They had settled comfortably.
Off late, there were many changes happening in the town. Before the sparrows had abundant food and shade withini their reach. The green fields were decreasing and were getting replaced by houses and buildings. The sparrows had been observing the changes.
In the summers all these sparrows would fly to the near by mango farm and spend some days. They would come back to settle down in the bushes in the rainy season. One mansoon when they came back, there was a shock waiting for them. Their bush, the shrubs and small plants everything was gone! The sparrows were shattered. They did not have any place to live! They did not understand what was happening. They saw humans building something in that place. There was a lot of unpleasant noise(Mobile phones). They were annoyed but so helpless that they did not know what to do. They decided to go back to the mango farm. But there were many baby sparrows and older sparrows in the group. Flying back till the farm again was a challenge for them. So, they decided to split. A few sparrows started to live in trees nearby and others decided to go to the farm. But even then, there was a lot of unpleasant noise and pollution. It became almost impossible for the sparrows to survive. So, they also decided to fly to the mango farm. Finally, with a lotof juggling, they reached the farm.
But they knew that changes are afoot and they had no idea what to do.Do you know what they can do? Take a pen and paper and write down your ideas
Moral of the Story
Sparrows are cute little birds. A few decades ago, they used to live in small bushes and even at the attic of the houses. They are tiny, sensitive and timid. It is now rarer to find sparrows in urban spaces. Discuss ideas on how one could help urban spaces be more greener and kinder to other species as well.
These short stories for kids are put together by our team to enable parents to talk to kids / read to kids and spend time with with minimal screen use. Please do see our other products that help kids learn without the screen
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Smitha Prasad is a budding writer who writes articles and short stories for kids. She believes that childhood is the right age to inculcate the right values in kids. It helps them to develop into confident adults. She designs and runs a kid’s magazine called A LITTLE MORE-An Engaging booklet, through which she tries to reach kids that helps kids stay away from screen, build conversations and build the right mindset in kids
