THINK TALES COLLECTION

SCARECROW

Scarecrow
nce there lived a unique being; he wore shabby clothes and a
tattered hat and his body was entirely made of straw. He
never knew what his name was, where he came from or who
had created him but he surely looked like no other being in

the world. He was kind-hearted and hardworking but his rather strange
look kept people and animals away from him. He wanted to be friends with
everybody in his village but they were so scared of him that they did not
even want to be anywhere near him.
One day, when he was walking to the forest with an axe in his hand, he saw
an old man wearily carrying a pile of firewood. He offered the man his help.
Let me help you carry the firewood for I have no burden to carry, said
the person whose body was made entirely of straw. The old man was
surprised when he saw him. Keep your distance. Keep away from me, you
ugly freak, I know youre trying to trick me so you can take the firewood!
cried the frightened man. No, I definitely have no intention of doing that.
In fact, I am about to cut some wood for myself, he replied. I could cut
more for you and help you to carry it home, he added cheerfully. The man
warned him not to come any nearer. I do not trust you for you are a
deceitful and foul being, yelped the man in fear. He dropped his firewood
and ran as fast as he could to his home.
The straw man felt upset because the old man did not trust him and had
accused him of a being sinister. He sincerely wished he could have helped
the old man carry the firewood for he looked really tired. In fact, he felt
guilty that because of him, the old man had left his firewood after all the
effort of cutting and gathering it. He decided to return the firewood to

the man the next day. As he walked to the mans village, he noticed the
villagers were having a large feast and he spotted the old man, whom he
met the day before, among the crowd. He quickly went towards the crowd
until he heard a womans voice yelling, Look!! Its the horrible looking
creature! He is coming here to steal our food. As soon as the villagers
noticed his presence, they immediately started to pick up stones from the
ground and throw them at him. I do not mean to harm any of you or steal
any of your property, I just want to
firewood, he cried. He begged the
stop but they continued to throw stones
was in a great pain.
He dropped the firewood and ran as fast

Look!! Its the

horrible looking
creature! He is
coming here to
steal our food.

could, he ran past his home and went

return the
crowd

to

at him. He
as
deep

he
into

the woods. He felt so sad because the

villagers

were mean to him even when he tried to

be nice to

them. He wished that there were people

who could

accept the way he looked. He continued

to

aimlessly through the woods until he

reached a

beautiful village with a wide range of

farmlands

and ranches. He decided to stop for a

while

walk

before he started on another arduous journey.

He visited the farms and noticed that the crops were being ruined by the
crows. The crows were eating the seeds of the wheat. The farmers were
futilely trying to shoo the crows away but the crows kept coming back and
continued to feed on the crops. He remembered that animals always ran
from him for they were scared of his bizarre look, therefore, he decided
to go to the farms and he hoped he could scare the crows away from the

crops. As he expected, the crows immediately flew away when they saw
him.
He then left the farm and the crows at once came back to the crops and
started feeding on them again. The farmers saw this and requested him to
stay with them. We have tried many methods to shoo those crows away
but none of them ever worked as well as what you have just done, the
oldest man among the farmers said. We hope you can help us with the
crows. We will let you stay here with us and give you whatever you need,
another man added. But I am afraid that I might scare you all away as
well, the straw man said to the farmers. How can you scare us when you
have just become the hero of our village, a woman replied and she added,
We have not had our feast for a long while. Our crops never grew and we
had no harvest to reap. The straw man felt pity towards the villagers and
finally he decided to stay with them.
All day long, he would be on the farms and crows were nowhere to be seen
around the crops. The crops started to grow and the farmers eventually
managed to reap their harvests. As a way of expressing their thanks for
the harvest, the villagers decided to hold a large feast and invited
everyone in the village including him. The villagers thanked him for his help
and expressed their gratitude to him. In fact, they asked him to stay with
them permanently. He was so happy that the villagers accepted him for
who he was that he, in return, accepted their offer to stay with them.
They decided to give him a name and the villagers agreed to call him
Scarecrow because the crows were afraid of him.

Scarecrow
What a life for a scarecrow,
An eye without a single eyebrow,
An arm without a proper elbow,
Still he got so much to show,
Living like there is no tomorrow.

He kept the crows off the crop,

On duty always like a real cop,
He swore he would never drop,
Exhausted but he would not flop,
A feat no man could ever top.

All he wanted was to help and care,

To prove that he was never a scare
He never bothered about any stare,
There was so much he wanted to share,
Knowing that he would be forever rare.
Activities

Basic Questions
Answer all four questions
A. What was the Scarecrow made from?
B. Describe the characteristics of the Scarecrow?
C. Explain why the villagers threw stones on the Scarecrow once they
saw him?
D. In relation to the story, how do our societies treat people who are
different and why do they usually mistreat these people?
Thinking Maps
Answer one of these questions
1. Use a circle map to describe why the old man called Scarecrow as a
freak.
2. Use a bubble map to explain the characteristics of the Scarecrow.
3. Use a double bubble map to compare and contrast how the earlier
villagers treated Scarecrow and the later villagers treated him.
4. Use a tree map to classify the character of Scarecrow of how he
looked like, how he was like and what he did.
5. Use a flow map to show how the character of Scarecrow developed
from the beginning of the story until the end.
6. Use multi-flow map to identify the causes and effects why
Scarecrow constantly tried to help everyone that he met.

7. Scarecrow was an outcast in the story as he was rejected and

shunned by the humans, use a bridge map to show how some people in
real life are being treated in such way by the society.
Thinking Hats
Answer all six questions
1.

Describe the characteristics of the Scarecrow.

2.

Explain your feelings when the villagers threw stones on the

Scarecrow when he was returning the firewood.

3.

What were the moral values that you could learn from the Scarecrow?

4.

What were the actions taken by the villagers that you disapproved?

5.

How do you think the Scarecrow could prevent himself from being

scary?
6.

Predict what would happen to Scarecrow in 10 years to come.

Q-Matrix
Answer all four questions
1. What did the old man do when he saw the scarecrow
2. How can the Scarecrow come to life since he is not human or animal?
3. What might happen if the villagers had decided to hunt the Scarecrow
down?

Create a high order thinking question based on the Q-Matrix.

Event

Situation

What is?

Where/ When is?

Which is?

Who is?

Why is?

How is?

Past

What
did?

Where/When did?

Which did?

Who did?

Why did?

How did?

Possibility

What
can?

Where/When can?

Which can?

Who can?

Why can?

How can?

Probability

What
would?

Where/When
would?

Which
would?

Who
would?

Why
would?

How
would?

Prediction

What
will?

Where/When
will?

Which
will?

Who will?

Why will?

How will?

What
might?

Where/When
might?

Which
might?

Who
might?

Why
might?

How
might?

Present

Imagination

Choice

Person

Reason

Means

SCAMPER
Choose one of the questions below and use your creativity to do a new
version of the story.
1. Substitute the villagers with a princess. How would she react to the
Scarecrow?
2. Combine the straws which what the Scarecrow made up from with
other materials such as leaves, feathers, cotton balls, stones etc. How
will he look like and how will that affect the story?
3. Adapt the background of the Scarecrow that he was once a man
cursed by a witch to be in that form. How do you want to story to
end?
4. Modify the size of the Scarecrow so he will be as big as a giant. Will
the villagers dare to throw sticks and stones to him? What will they
do?
5. Put to other uses of the Scarecrow instead of scaring the crows away.
What can he do? How is he going to do it?

6. Eliminate the crows from the story. What will happen to Scarecrow?
Will he still be able to be useful to the villagers? How can he show
them that he can be helpful?
7. Reverse the roles of the characters so that the villagers are actually
the beings that are made of straws and the supposed Scarecrow
himself is actually a human who somehow stumbles upon the village of
creatures made of straws. How will the story develop? What will
happen to the main character?
Three StoreyIntellect
Answer all three questions
1. How do you describe the appearance of the Scarecrow?
2. What is the difference between the Scarecrow and humans?
3. Why is it hard for people to accept things that are out of ordinary?
Thinkers keys
Answer all three questions
1. Imagine other possible uses of the scarecrow.
2. What are the disadvantages of using scarecrow to scare birds and
how to improve them?
3. What if scarecrows really exist as living creatures that live on earth
together with humans? Explain what will it be like?
SCAMPER
Select one of the questions below and create your version of the poem.

1 Substitute the Scarecrow with other creature or character. What will

happen to that character?
2 Modify the scarecrows physical appearance e.g. wings, long feet,
bigger in size etc. How will it affect the story?
3 Put to other uses of the Scarecrow instead of scaring the crows away.
What can he do? How is he going to do it?
4 Eliminate the crows from the story. What will happen to Scarecrow?
Will he still be able to be useful to the villagers? How can he show
them that he can be helpful?

Decision-making matrix
Should the Scarecrow stay in the village where the people have grown fond of him or travel to other places to seek a better life.
Consider the two choices based on the four criteria and score each factor according to the following scale:
Score

1: Not at all important

4: very important

village

Score
Travel to
other places

Score

3: moderately important

5: extremely important

Safety
Stay in the

2: slightly important

Future career

Criteria
Self-growth

Search for origin

Total