Learning from ancient folk stories

I was just reading some stories from Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales(affiliate link) to my kids and realized how much you can learn from them to create short anecdotes that fit inside your bigger presentation:


  • Very short
  • One to three simple (almost stereotypical) characters
  • Something happens at turn 3. "On the 3rd day..."
  • An unexpected twist at the end: "and this is why monkeys became so good at climbing trees"
These tales were designed to be remembered and passed on for generations. How long does your slide deck stick?