Friday, March 2, 2012

A Fair Wind

I have decided to do stories about the wind and about kites for my March family story time. (I know, not very original, but I found a really simple kite craft that I want to do.)   The following story is based on a very short and simple tale so of course I had to add to it.

The Story:
A Fair Wind

Once upon a time, long, long ago, before there were cars, trains or airplanes, there was a traveler walking down the road from one town to the next. He could not afford a horse or even a donkey so he walked. It was a very chilly day.

Now it just so happened that the Sun, Frost and Wind were resting by the road after a busy morning of making weather. The traveler walked past them and as he did, called out “Peace to you, brother!” as he went by. Soon the Sun, the Frost and Wind began to argue. Each one had thought that the traveler had addressed him and not the others. “Surely, he was talking to me,” said the Sun. “No, I was the one he was greeting,” replied Frost. Wind said, “Well, there is only one way to find out. We will go ask him.”

They caught up with the traveler further down the road and demanded to know which of them he had greeted. The traveler replied, “Brother Wind was the one I greeted because a fair wind at my back makes my journey easier.” This made the Sun angry. “Ignore me! Ha! I’ll make your journey harder by baking down on you so that you will quickly become miserable from the heat!” “Don’t worry,” said the Wind. “I will blow and blow to keep you cool while the Sun shines.” “Well, I will freeze him! He’ll regret ignoring me!” said Frost angrily. The Wind replied, “Do not worry. Frost cannot freeze without my blowing the cold air. I simply will not blow and you will stay warm.”

“Thank you for protecting me, Brother Wind,” said the traveler as he continued on his way. Indeed he had an easy journey for there was always a fair wind at his back to help him along his way.

Source:  I found the original story on the SurLaLune Fairy Tales web site.  It is called, "The Frost, The Sun and The Wind" and is from Sixty Folk-Tales From Exclusively Slavonic Sources (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, & Company, 1890) by A.H. Wratislaw.

Magnet Board figures awaiting lamination:

I made large colorful figures for the magnet board for visual interest.  Since there are few characters and the story is short, I wanted the figures to stand out.  I made the sun, frost and wind using the shapes and lines in Microsoft Publisher.  This story is a good example of one that can be told using figures from other stories.  There are many stories that feature the sun and wind.  The traveler can be almost any standing figure.  I took the traveler figure from "The Miller, the Boy and the Donkey" in The Flannel Board Storytelling Book by Judy Sierra. I was going to use one of my Month Brothers but decided on this one because the simple style of the illustration went well with the other figures.  If I had taken my pieces from other storytelling sets, the only one I would have had to make would have been Frost which is simple to do.  The main reason I like to make duplicates is because I like to keep all the pieces of a story together in a large envelope.  I note on the envelope the date the story was used and with what group. 

Katie of the Storytime Katie blog is hosting the this week's Flannel Friday Round-Up.  Information about Flannel Friday can be found on So Tomorrow's Flannel Friday page.

1 comment:

  1. I love stories where I can use figures I have from other flannel/magnet boards! Thanks for sharing this one!

    ReplyDelete