Fairy tale · 声匠改编 · 4:04
Henny Penny
An acorn bonks Henny Penny on the head and she's sure the sky is falling. Off she rushes to tell the King, until a sly fox offers a short cut.
Narrator
Henny Penny
Cocky Locky
Ducky Lucky
Goosey Loosey
Turkey Lurkey
Foxy LoxyOther languages · 2 languages
About this story
Henny Penny is a European folk tale, known in America as Chicken Little. Joseph Jacobs printed a famous English version in English Fairy Tales (1890), and a much older cousin appears in the Buddhist Jataka tales, where a hare panics because it thinks the earth is breaking up. In the old English telling the fox eats nearly everyone; in this bedtime version Cocky Locky spots the trick in time and they all run home.
What it teaches
Don't believe everything you hear, and don't spread a scare before you check the facts. Panic makes us easy to fool, as the fox knows very well.
Suits
Ages 3–8
Tips for telling it
- Say the rhyming names together; children love Cocky Locky and Turkey Lurkey.
- Each time a new bird joins, ask your child: did anyone actually look at the sky?
- Drop a soft toy on your own head at the start and the end for big giggles.
Questions people ask
- What is the moral of Henny Penny?
- Check the facts before you panic or pass on a rumour. Henny Penny's friends never ask to see the evidence, and their panic almost leads them into a fox's den.
- Is Henny Penny the same story as Chicken Little?
- Yes. Henny Penny is the usual British name and Chicken Little the usual American one. The birds' names change from version to version, but the bump on the head and the panic about a falling sky stay the same.
- What does 'the sky is falling' mean?
- Thanks to this story, saying someone thinks the sky is falling means they are panicking about a disaster that is not really happening.
More Fairy tales
All Fairy tales episodes →Jack and the Beanstalk
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Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz
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A cyclone carries Dorothy and Toto to Oz, where a Scarecrow, a Tin Woodman and a Cowardly Lion join her on the yellow brick road. Baum's 1900 book.
Pinocchio
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A wooden puppet who won't listen meets a Talking Cricket, a sly Fox and Cat, a blue-haired Fairy and a sea monster, and earns the right to be a real boy.
