How Tiger Got His Stripes: A Folktale from Vietnam

I loved this origin story just as I did as a child, though I almost forgot about it before seeing the title. The colorful illustrations and personification of the tiger made me revisit my childhood to hear it again for the first time. This is such an important story for a child to hear. It gives a very good explanation, but with the added whimsical creativity that a child would fall in love with. It also has cultural aspects of Vietnam, which is very important in an origin story as it is the actual origin and reason for the story being.

This Vietnamese folktale about a tiger earning his stripes is an entertaining way to give children some diverse culture on the bookshelf. The moral of this story is to not be too prideful or selfish, which is important for elementary aged kids to grasp. A way to involve students could be to "give" them a stripe every time you caught them doing something nice that week. Teachers could also have kids talk about why they think this is an important lesson. I loved this story!!

Many years ago, the proudest animal in the jungle was not the peacock. The proudest animal was the tiger. In this folktale from Vietnam, we see how Tiger's pride leads him to covet wisdom, and with the help of a wise farmer, earn his stripes. This book would be good for a lesson about pride, and how not to be too proud that it makes the people around you angry at you.

This story provides the perfect platform to discuss geography and how climate, inhabitants and life differs from one country to another. Being a Vietnamese folktale this story presents to students landscapes, clothing and animals they would not find in their own countries outside a zoo or museum. The teacher can base a lesson around these comparisons creating contrasts and discussing the practicality of each difference.

I like how a lot of these multicultural folktales say it all with the title. This was an amusing story, but I think the illustrations were better than the story. It is short, which would be good to read to younger students.
Curriculum Connections: Once again this would be a great example to use an any unit for any age that's on folktales.

How Tiger Got His Stripes has an important message for young students. It is important for them to understand the concept of humbleness. This book is a traditional literature book that will keep students entertained while also making it easy for students to understand that they can not be boastful. It is a fun story that kids will love!

Having a folktale come from another culture have diversre children to look at things in one way. I think that this story was easy to read and children can really grasp the importanct of not being selfish.