Sports Day in the Jungle

HERE IS A STORY I wrote in the form of a script. It could be read around the class or performed as a 'Readers Theatre' piece. Simply read the story with pupils and ask them to come up with questions as you would with any story. There are versions attached in MS word and PDF format. He is is in plain text form.

-------------

Narrator: It was a hot day as usual in the jungle, and some of the animals were beginning to get bored. Then Cheetah suddenly had a great idea.

Cheetah: I’ve had a great idea! Let’s have some running races for everyone in the jungle, and whoever is the fastest gets a gold medal.

Sloth: Do we have to? I’m perfectly comfortable up here, lazing around. You only want a race because you like running. I like sleeping.

Eagle: It is a great idea – when the starter says ‘Go’, I’ll fly as fast as I can to the finish line and beat you all!

Zebra: No, no, that’s not fair, it’s a running race. You’ll have to stand at the starting line and run along, like the rest of us.

Snake: But if it’s a running race, that’s not fair to Eagle, because he’s only got little legs, and it certainly isn’t fair to me, because I haven’t got any legs at all. It’s only fair if you let it be a running-or-slithering race.

Parrot: Running-or-slithering-or-flying race, you mean. We all get to race in the way we move fastest. That’s perfectly fair.

Tiger: No it’s not. It’s not fair at all. If a race is going to be fair, we all have to be doing the same thing. It’s not a fair race unless we all start at the same place and cover the same distance in the same way. Fair means the same rules for everyone.

Ant: But that’s not fair to me! I can’t fly or slither, but however fast I run I’ll never catch up with you because I’m much smaller than you are. I should be allowed a head start. Cheetah, you’re about two metres long if we include your tail, so if you run a hundred metres, that’s fifty times your body length – and I’m about two centimetres long, so I should just run one metre. That’s fair.
Elephant: Oh no it’s not! I’m huge, but I’m not very fast. I’d have to start miles away, if the race is fifty times my body size. Everyone knows cheetahs are faster than elephants, so I shouldn’t have to start behind cheetah, I should be ahead of him.

Monkey: I’ve got a good idea. How about all the cheetahs race the other cheetahs, and all the elephants race the other elephants, like that?

Tree frog: That’s not fair, I’m a very old frog with creaky frogs’-legs. The younger frogs can hop much faster than me ... I need a head start because of my disability.

Owl: I’m the wisest, so I’ll sort it out. Let me measure everyone for height and weight and age and fitness and everything else I can think of, and then I’ll work out where everyone should start and how they should move. Then, and only then, will we have a perfectly fair race.

Narrator: So Owl worked very hard and made a huge spreadsheet and then he marked out a track with different starting places for everyone, to make it exactly fair. The animals all lined up in their places.

Owl: Ready, Steady, Go!

[Animals all make their animal noises for five seconds.]

Animals, all together: I won!

Cheetah: But everyone knows I’m the fastest animal in the jungle! Why should we all finish at the same time? It wasn’t fair!