The Dog and the Manger The Dog and the Manger 4A

Introducing the Read-Aloud 10 minutes

What Have We Already Learned?

Ask students what characters they remember from the three fables that they have already heard. You may choose to show images from the previous read-alouds to help students recall. Have students describe the various characters. Ask students what lesson the various characters learned.

Essential Background Information or Terms

Tell students that they are going to hear another fable today. This fable is also short and it has a lesson. But in today’s fable, there are no people. All of the characters are animals. And the animals talk!

Tell them that this is a third characteristic of fables: animals act like people. Many of Aesop’s fables have animals that act like people.

 Show image 4A-1: Ox talking to the dog

In The Manger

Ask students to describe what they see in the picture. Tell them that the dog is standing in a manger—a long, narrow, open container that holds food for animals. It sits on legs, off the ground, making it easy for animals to reach when they are hungry. Tell students that the large animal standing in front of the manger is an ox. Ask students if the ox is similar to another animal that they have seen. Explain that the plural of ox is oxen, so if there were several of these animals in the illustration, they would be called oxen.

Making Predictions About the Read-Aloud

Point out that the dog and the ox in the image look like they are talking to one another. Ask students to predict what the two animals are talking about.

Purpose for Listening

Tell students to listen carefully to the fable to find out if their predictions are correct.