How the Strelitzia became a flower - A fable for kids with an activity

A fable is a story that usually have animal or plant characters in the story and there is always a moral to the story.  A moral is a lesson that we can learn.

This if the story how the Strelitzia became a plant.  Another name for this plant is also The Bird of paradise flower.

image source

If you look at the Strelitzia flower you will see it looks like the head of a bird with purple and orange 'feathers' sticking out at the top.  This flower is native to South Africa and very beautiful growing in the garden.  

But believe it or not, the Strelitzia was not always a plant it use to be a bird....

In the beginning of Earth, the Maker created these beautiful colorful birds called Strelitzias.  They had long elegant legs and beautiful purple and orange feather.  On their head they had a 'crown' made of these colorful feathers.

They were not only beautiful, they could also fly very high.  Much higher as any of the other birds.  They were truly the best flyers and easily got to the highest mountain top and made their nest there.

Every day they would fly around and go higher and higher and soon they started to think that they were better than all the other animals on Earth.

They started getting very mean and bullied the other animals.  They laughed at the tortoise that were low on the ground and moved slowly and they told the giraffe even if he has a long neck, he will never smell the same fresh air that they can smell if they flew high in the sky.

They teased the birds that did not have colorful wings and they even told the insects they can just as well stop trying to fly, because they were useless.

This bullying and bad mouthing made the other animals very sad and every day they started to believe more and more of the ugly things the Strelitzias were telling them.

One day the Maker came to visit his beautiful garden and was very puzzled when he did not see the animals happily playing around.  He found some of them just sitting around, looking very depressed.  

After a while the fox came and even though the other animals said he must rather not tell, he told the Maker how mean the Strelitzias had become and how they bullied the other animals.

The Maker was very cross and said:  "Who do they think they are?  I made you all special in your own way. What gives them the right to think that they are better than anyone else? "

The next moment, before the Strelitzias even knew what was going on, they were grabbed out of the air by the Maker and their legs were stuck into the ground.

Their beautiful long legs turned into roots and their colorful wings into dull green leaves.  

The only reminder that they had left of when they were once beautiful and majestic, were the orange and purple 'plumes' on their heads.

That day they learned that you must never look down on others, no matter what they look like or where they come from.  

We are all created equal.

If you ever pass a Strelitzia flower, have a close look and you will see how they still reach for the sky and try to free their legs from the ground, but unfortunately they learned their lesson too late...

For some facts on this plant your can read more on https://funflowerfacts.com/2013/03/09/fun-flower-facts-birds-of-paradise-strelitzia-reginae/ 

Activity

Watch the video and make your own Strelitzias by using paper.

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