Guidelines for the participatory story

Please read the story aloud slowly. Whenever an animal appears in the text, the children should clap. It’s especially fun if the children also imitate the animals’ sounds. You can vary the activity later by having them clap for every colour or for every piece of fruit.

The participatory story "The Fruit Thief"

Little raven Theo is sad. He can’t find his blue basket with his beloved fruit. He loves his red cherries, yellow pears and, above all, his green apples so much.

Theo leaps out of his brown nest. His tummy rumbles; he is so hungry. Then he hears a loud smacking noise. Could a sneaky fruit thief have stolen his basket?

There he sees Picasso, the pink piglet, behind a green bush. "Have you seen my fruit basket?" asks Theo. Picasso shakes his head, smacking his mouth. Theo looks at Picasso suspiciously. But now he notices that Picasso is eating red strawberries. So Picasso is not the fruit thief.

Theo must keep searching. He flies high above the treetops almost as far as Armin the eagle, who is circling in the sky. There he sees Eddi the grey donkey. He is eating a red apple. "Got you, you nasty fruit thief!" cries Theo, fluttering excitedly with his black wings. But then he realises these are not his apples. His apples are smaller and a different colour. So Eddi is also not the fruit thief.

Feeling sad, Theo sits on a grey stone. A big blue tear rolls down his yellow beak. Then Felix the little white lamb arrives. Felix is Theo’s best friend. He has a pink box with him. Theo tells Felix the story of the nasty fruit thief. "I am the nasty fruit thief!" laughs Felix. Theo is upset. He hadn’t expected that from his best friend. Felix points to the box. "Open it!" he says. Theo opens the box and looks inside. In the box lies a wonderful fruit cake. "Surprise! I baked this for my best friend this morning!" beams Felix. Even more big blue tears roll down Theo’s beak — but this time they are tears of joy.