This is the story of how it came to be that ants are are able to be found living almost everywhere on the planet. Lion, King of the Animals, wanted one of every animal to come honor him. One of every animal makes their way to Lion to bow before him. In the end they are awaiting the arrival of one...Ant. It takes Ant the longest to get there, because he is so small. When he does arrive the others mock him. Once the Queen Ant hears he was treated poorly, she wants to punish Lion and asks her friend worm to crawl in his ear. The worm agrees, crawls into Lions ear when he is sleeping, and wiggles. This tickles Lion so badly he cannot concentrate on anything. He asks the other animals to help get whatever is in his ear out, but no one is small enough. That is, until he remembers ant. Ant comes and tells worm he can come out and thanks him for his help. Lion is so thankful to Ant, so he rewards the ants by allowing them to live wherever they want, which is why ants can be found almost everywhere!
Hamilton, Martha and Mitch Weiss. How and Why Stories: World Tales Kids Can Read and Tell. Little Rock, AK: August House, 1999.
Yoe, Shway. The Burman: His Life and Notions. London: Macmillan and Co., 1910. Page 568.
This story fits best with younger children, though when prefaced that way, adults in the language class room can enjoy it too. It actually allows the learners to use vocabulary about animals, mannerisms, sounds, which sometimes differ in different cultural contexts and might serve as an interesting classroom discussion topic. I did have the chance to perform this story somewhat cross-culturally- at the Spanish-English Bilingual Story hour at the Urbana Free Libary. I included a lot of acting out the animals time and even prompted children with questions like, "Can anyone walk like a penguin" (I threw in penguins because I happen to like the way they waddle. The kids seemed to like it too). I recounted the story in English with help of a Spanish interpreter for whom I paused after every 1-2 sentences or complete thought. For an adult ESL audience, I would not have them do the actions, but I may still do them myself to add to the story.
