What is strong? Well, that might depend on one’s perspective!
In a Korean folktale, a rat family seeks to marry a daughter to the strongest one, yet they find that strength isn’t always found where one expects it.
Stories about the strongest one are found in many cultures, from Lapland (a former province of Finland) to the southern United States, to Japan, to some of the African countries, and Korea. Who knows where it began? There are differences that reflect each place and culture, yet many of them have a similar pattern along with a bit of irony – and why not, for strength is relative, after all.
After listening to the story, see if you can draw the wind. That is one of the favorite choices of the students in our Kindergarten Connection class at the library. There we do it with chalk on a chalkboard, but you can try it with chalk on the sidewalk, with crayons on paper, with a pencil or paint or anything you have on hand! What does the wind look like to you?
