The Bluebird
and the Coyote
Level: TBD
Aims: reading comprehension,
dictionary lookup skills, recitation skills, reading in context, exposure to American
culture
Time: 90 mins
Materials: photocopies of
the story, dictionary
Introduction: The Bluebird and the Coyote is a tale from
the Pima Indian tribe in
Have the
students read the story silently for 10 minutes, using their dictionaries.
Then, go around the classroom, having students recite paragraphs from the text
aloud. Work on fluency in recitation. Next, go through Text of the Story with
Notes, and follow this with Discussion Questions.
Text
of the Story
The Bluebird and the Coyote (Pima tribe)
The
bluebird was once a very ugly color. But there was a lake where no river flowed
in or out, and the bird bathed in it four times every morning for four
mornings. Every morning it sang: There's a blue water,
it lies there. I went in. I am all blue.
On the fourth morning it shed all its feathers and it came out of the lake in
its bare skin, but on the fifth morning it came out with blue feathers. All this while Coyote had been watching the bird. He wanted
to jump in and get it, but he was afraid of the water. Oh the fifth morning he
said, "How is it that all your ugly color has come out and you are now
blue and gay and beautiful? You're more beautiful than anything that flies in
the air. I want to be blue too."
Coyote was at this time a bright green. "I went in four times," said
the bluebird, and taught Coyote the song. So Coyote went in four times, and the
fifth time he came out as blue as the little bird.
That made him feel very proud. As he walked along, he
looked on every side to see if anyone was noticing how fine and blue he was. He
looked to see if his shadow was blue too, and so he was not watching the road.
Presently he ran into a stump so hard that it threw him down in the dirt, and
he became dust colored all over. And to this day all coyotes are the color of
dirt.
Text of the Story with
Notes
The Bluebird and the Coyote (Pima tribe)
The
bluebird was once a very ugly color. But there was a lake where no river flowed
in or out, and the bird bathed in it four times every morning for four
mornings. Every morning it sang: There's a blue water,
it lies there. I went in. I am all blue.
On the fourth morning it shed all its feathers and it came out of the lake in
its bare skin, but on the fifth morning it came out with blue feathers. All this while Coyote had been watching the bird. He wanted
to jump in and get it, but he was afraid of the water. Oh the fifth morning he
said, "How is it that all your ugly color has come out and you are now
blue and gay and beautiful? You're more beautiful than anything that flies in
the air. I want to be blue too."
Coyote was at this time a bright green. "I went in four times," said
the bluebird, and taught Coyote the song. So Coyote went in four times, and the
fifth time he came out as blue as the little bird.
That made him feel very proud. As he walked along, he
looked on every side to see if anyone was noticing how fine and blue he was. He
looked to see if his shadow was blue too, and so he was not watching the road.
Presently he ran into a stump so hard that it threw him down in the dirt, and
he became dust colored all over. And to this day all coyotes are the color of
dirt.