The Spare in the Shed: discussion sheet

Part One: The First Courtesy · about 5 minutes to read aloud · Theme: belonging

Every new picking-machine in the valley is alike, and sameness feels like safety. One family keeps a slow old one that does not have to earn its place.

Choose a question to talk over, or try the activity with words and pictures.

Start here

What does the grandmother do for the Spare every evening, long before the frost?

Go further

The girl says the Spare does not have to earn the shed. Is there something you would keep even if it never did anything useful, and why?

Make something

Draw two evenings in the shed: one before the frost, and one after the harvest. What stays the same in the way the family greets the Spare?

Read The Spare in the Shed online: youngmachines.org/read/fables/the-spare-in-the-shed/