Munch and the Balloon - Children's story with a message of tolerance

Once upon a Munch Time, there was a cow called Munch. Today was Munch’s birthday, soon after Christmas. Munch the cow had a party with Robbie the Robin and Sally the Squirrel, and all the other cows and pigs and sheep. One of these was a shiny blue balloon with ‘Happy Birthday Munch the cow’ written on it in nice shiny orange writing. The balloon was on a string.

Munch was grateful for the balloon and all the other presents.  Munch the cow stood on the string and enjoyed tapping the balloon with her nose. But Munch enjoyed this game so much that she let go of the balloon. Her hooves did not hold the string well. Munch could only hold wider things like books. That caused Munch to lose the balloon.

The balloon floated up and the string got stuck around a high up door handle. The balloon was stuck in the window of the barn. Munch the cow cried. She could still see the balloon but could not get it. This gave her hope of getting the balloon, but no way of reaching it.

Sally the squirrel said to the cow, “why don’t you climb and get the balloon”, but Munch could not climb.

Robbie the Robin said “why don’t you fly up and get the balloon”, but Munch could not fly.

Munch the cow cried and cried. She knew the animals were trying to help but she could not do these things. She felt sad.

Then Robbie the Robin said “I will fly up and get the balloon”. Robbie was good at flying. Robbie was good at flapping against the balloon to knock the balloon free from the window. Robbie was good at picking things up with his beak. But when Robbie picked up the string and tried to fly down he could not, as the string was still stuck around the handle.

Robbie felt bad because he couldn’t get the balloon, Robbie cried.

But then Sally the squirrel said “I can’t fly but I can climb and chew”. So Sally climbed to get her teeth into the string. Robbie kept hold of the string at the top. When Sally chewed through, the balloon came free. Robbie flew down with the balloon.

The animals felt good. They all cheered and barked and mooed and chirped and squeaked.

Munch the cow felt better but was still worried because she had hooves. Though she felt better that she could not fly, she still felt bad that she could not hold the string.

The farmer looked out the window to see what had happened. The farmer was pleased the animals were having fun.

Colin the Collie had an idea, he ran under a gap in the hedge to get the farmer to ask him to help.

The farmer wanted to help Munch the cow. The farmer has hands so can hold things. So the farmer tied the balloon string around a little post.

Then Munch felt better and the farmer felt better, and all the animals felt better because the farmer had helped.

Munch the cow felt better but was still a bit unhappy. As the other animals could all do useful things and the Munch could not do any of these things so well. Munch wanted to do something but could not fly or climb or hold things, or run through the little gap in the hedge.

Munch did not feel like doing her game again. But then Munch thought of something she could do and the farmer realised how he could help.

The farmer liked Robbie the Robin but did not like that Robbie often flew in the window of the barn and pecked at the milk bottles. The farmer did not like telling Robbie off though.  The farmer wanted to help Munch and Munch wanted to help Robbie the robin and the other animals. With the farmers help, Munch was milked and this meant everyone could have milk.

The farmer had lots of nuts left over from Christmas and gave this to Sally the squirrel. This helped Sally to eat her favourite food and snuggle indoors for the cold winter.

The farmer and Munch put some of her milk every day in a bowl near the post. This meant that all the animals that liked milk had milk every day. Robbie the Robin did not need to peck the bottles in the window . Robbie drank from the bowl instead.

And Munch the cow had lots of company who all joined her game, and they all had fun every day. They all felt good that they all knew how to do things and how to help each other.