It was storytime at Little Ted’s nursery and everyone was gathered in a circle.
“Today we have a story about Gilbert the Giraffe” said his nursery teacher, Mrs Miller. “Before I begin, has anyone ever seen a giraffe?”
A few of the boys and girls put their hands up.
“Excellent. Now keep your hand up if you saw this first hand, not on television or in a book.”
Many of the hands went down, but two children kept their hands up.
“So Sarah and Kieran where did you see the giraffe?”
“At the zoo” replied Sarah
“Me too” added Kieran
“And what do you remember the most about the giraffe?” asked Mrs Miller
“It had a very long neck” answered Sarah
“Its tongue was black” replied Kieran
“Well in this story we hear about both of these things.“
Ready? Gilbert the Giraffe lived in a zoo with many other kinds of animals. The animals liked Gilbert because his long neck meant he could reach things that were high up, such as when the hippo’s ball got stuck up a tree or when the zebras had eaten all the leaves they could reach Gilbert would pull the branch down so they could eat some more.
But one day as Gilbert was nibbling on some twigs, the monkeys noticed that Gilbert’s tongue was a different colour to theirs and they started to tease him.
Gilbert had never really thought about his tongue or noticed that it was different to the other zoo animals and he felt upset and self-conscious about being different. He felt so embarrassed that he went away and stood in the far away corner of his enclosure and hung his head. Poor Gilbert.
Next to Gilbert’s enclosure was the reptile house and Shay one of the snakes had heard what the monkeys said to Gilbert and saw how it made him feel, so he called out the window “Don’t let the monkeys get you down Gilbert, lots of us have different tongues – look at mine!” and he stuck out his tongue, which looked like a tiny two-pronged fork, for everyone to see.
Gilbert came across to the window and looked at Shay’s tongue. Then he looked at the monkeys with their ordinary pink tongues.
“I’ve got a black tongue too” said the polar bear “all the best animals do” and he made a great big bear noise that sounded like he was laughing.
“You see monkeys, Gilbert isn’t so different after all” continued Shay. ”It also isn’t very nice to comment on someone’s appearance or make them feel embarrassed like that. Look around you - we all come in different shapes and sizes, with different ears, tongues and hair. But we all live here at the zoo so we all need to get along and be kind to others.“
“We’re sorry Gilbert” said the monkeys all together “we didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. Would you like one of our bananas?”
After the story was finished Mrs Miller asked the children for ideas about how they could be kind to others.
“We could go and sit with someone if we see they’re on their own” suggested Alex.
“We can share our toys when we’re playing” added Kieran. “and let them join in with our games.”
Little Ted put his hand up.
“I know the answer. Don’t be a monkey, be more like Gilbert and help others.” Little Ted said.
“Well said Little Ted. Well said.”
The End