Tikki Tikki Tembo

Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel, illustrated by Blair Lent, is about two brothers, one is older and most honored with a very long name to match! One is younger and less honored with a very short name. When each boy falls into the well, Mother learns a powerful lesson about having too long of a name!
This book really gives a view of how Asians take pride in giving longer names to certain children but realizing that a long name is not very necessary at all. Folklore was created as a genre to keep cultures alive and express the importance of keeping the culture alive from generation to generation. In order to keep folklore alive, one must keep the story genuine and without misunderstanding. Another book by this same author is The Funny Little Woman.

Classroom Activities:

1.) To make things creative, have the children in your class pick a topic that is of their own culture, like ceremonial clothing or facial jewelry, and have them research the subject. The students can then write a short folklore story depicting the subject to present to their class.


2.) Another activity can be that the students create a book with their same subject as well as illustrating the pictures in the book. Or the students can pair up, one person can write the story and the other person can illustrate the pictures in the book.

Goals:

• Students will be able to know what it's like to work with a partner and collaborate on a project together.

Bibliography:

Mosel, A., Lent, B., & Harden, M. G. (2012). Tikki Tikki Tembo. New York: Square Fish/Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.