It’s Perfectly True
(Adapted from Hans Christian Anderson)

It was a Sunday morning, and the barnyard hens were roosting and cackling away.

“I heard that Harriet Hen flew so awkwardly off the fence that she fell into the pig sty,” said one hen.

“That’s nothing,” said another. “I heard that Ronald Rooster forgot to wake up at sunrise and no one got up on time!”

“Quiet down,” grunted mother pig to the cackling hens. “What’s all the noise about? Can’t you be quiet?”

Play the game of “Gossip.” Students stand in a line. You think of one or two simple sentences, such as, “I am going to the store to buy some rice and beans.” Then you whisper it into the ear of the first student, who then whispers what he or she heard to the next student, and so on. The last student says what he or she heard out loud. Usually the sentence gets very distorted by the end! After playing several rounds of “Gossip,” ask students if they learned anything from this game.

Moral: Don’t gossip or listen to gossip. 

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