Unit 8 The Pot of Wisdom
Let’s talk Which traditional story characters do you know? Describe one of these characters. What does this character look like? What are some of the things he or she does? Reading Skim the story. • Who are the characters in the story? • What is in the calabash? The Pot of Wisdom
A long time ago Nyame, the sky-god, gave Anansi the spider all the wisdom in the world. He told him to take it to Earth and share the wisdom with everyone else. But Anansi was selfish, so when he got home, he put all the wisdom into a big calabash and hid it. The next day, Anansi looked into the gourd and learned something. Every day he looked inside it he learned different things. The calabash was full of wonderful ideas and skills. Anansi wanted to keep the wisdom to
himself, so he decided to disobey Nyame. He said, “I’m not going to share the treasure of knowledge with everyone. I’ll keep it all for myself.” Then Anansi thought, “Hmmm! But what could stop someone from coming along and stealing all this wisdom away from me?” He decided that the best place to hide his calabash was at the top of a tall coconut tree. So Anansi took some vines and made a strong string. He tied it firmly round the calabash, leaving one end free. He then tied the loose end around his waist so that the calabash hung down in front of him. Then he started to climb the tree. He struggled as he climbed because the calabash kept bumping and banging against his stomach.
• Story elements: Ask students to identify the different story elements as they read: characters and setting, conflict (problem), events and resolution. • You could use this story to assess how well your students read aloud.
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