Country
Spain

Tale typology
Intercultural traditions

Age Suitability
This video is suitable for 5 years old children

Tale summary
In The Boy Who Cried Wolf, the shepherd boy gets bored watching his sheep all afternoon. All they do is munch, munch, munch, and say "Baaaaa". The shepherd boy tries to get the sheep to play games with him, but they aren't interested. Finally, he thinks of a plan to spice up life in the pasture. He cries that a wolf is after his sheep, and all of the townspeople come running. The shepherd boy spends the rest of the afternoon playing with one of his friends. After the wild success of this trick, the shepherd boy cries the next day that there are two wolves after his sheep. Again, the townspeople come running. But when three wolves really do come, will the shepherd boy get the help he needs?

Educational potential / Learning Outcomes
The pupils will discuss about honesty and responsibility.
They will develop their mathematical skills

Full Plot
Once upon a time, there lived a shepherd boy who was bored watching his flock of sheep on the hill. To amuse himself, he shouted, “Wolf! Wolf! The sheep are being chased by the wolf!” The villagers came running to help the boy and save the sheep. They found nothing and the boy just laughed looking at their angry faces.
“Don’t cry ‘wolf’ when there’s no wolf boy!”, they said angrily and left. The boy just laughed at them.
After a while, he got bored and cried ‘wolf!’ again, fooling the villagers a second time. The angry villagers warned the boy a second time and left. The boy continued watching the flock. After a while, he saw a real wolf and cried loudly, “Wolf! Please help! The wolf is chasing the sheep. Help!”
But this time, no one turned up to help. By evening, when the boy didn’t return home, the villagers wondered what happened to him and went up the hill. The boy sat on the hill weeping. “Why didn’t you come when I called out that there was a wolf?” he asked angrily. “The flock is scattered now”, he said.
An old villager approached him and said, “People won’t believe liars even when they tell the truth. We’ll look for your sheep tomorrow morning. Let’s go home now”.
Moral: Lying breaks trust. Nobody trusts a liar, even when he is telling the truth.

One Lesson Plan
PROCEDURAL INSTRUCTIONS
Introduction Activity: The teacher will play the video The boy who cried wolf. After they’ve watched together, the teacher ask the following questions:
What is honesty and why is it important?
How did the shepherd boy's dishonesty hurt him? How did it endanger his sheep?
What do you think the townspeople will do if wolves come again?
How can the shepherd boy gain back the trust of the townspeople?
What lesson can we each learn from this story?
Main Activity:
There are 4 activities I proposed for this lesson:
1st activity: Find the sheep
2nd activity: Find the way
3rd activity: What’s the difference
4th activity: Create and colour
All the activities are described in the following pages.
Follow-up Activities: you can continue with any activity listed above.
Additional Resources: Print