The ants love to work. The grasshoppers are always playing. Which activity is more important?
Learning Objective: As students read this charming update of an Aesop’s fable, they will determine the theme: It’s important to have a balance of work and play in your life.
Characters
Choose the character you will play.
Storytellers 1, 2, and 3
(S1, S2, S3)
THE ANTS
Aaron and Agnes, the parents
Alex and Annie, the children
All Ants, to be read by a group
THE GRASSHOPPERS
Gavin, the dad
Greta and Gus, the children
Granny Hopper, the grandma
All Grasshoppers, to be read by a group
Scene 1
S1: A group of ants march through the tall grass.
Aaron: We’re late! We’re late!
Agnes: Oh no, oh no!
Alex: Wait for me! My six legs are shorter than yours.
Annie: There’s no time to wait! No time to waste!
Alex: Can’t we rest for a minute?
Agnes: NO! We are ants.
Annie: We love to work!
All Ants: We live to work!
Agnes: If we’re late now, we’ll be late forever!
Aaron: Ants never stop!
Alex (muttering): But why do we have to work all the time?
Scene 2
S2: The ants reach a wheat field.
S3: They see a group of grasshoppers happily chomping some seeds.
Gavin: Hey there! Hi there! How’s it going?
Greta: I’m Greta, and this is Granny. And that’s my brother Gus, and my dad, Gavin.
Aaron: No time to chat.
Gus: Not even a “hello”?
Alex: We have a strict schedule.
Annie: Saying hello to grasshoppers is not on that schedule.
Granny: There’s always time to enjoy a beautiful day.
Agnes: Not when there’s work to be done!
Scene 3
S1: The next day, the ants see the grasshoppers in the field again.
Greta: Hellooo, ants! Want to play a game?
Agnes: There’s no time to play! We have to work.
Gus: Do you ants ever not work?
All Ants: What?!
Annie: There’s always more to be done.
Granny: But what about enjoying the moment?
Alex: What’s that?
Granny: It means enjoying what’s happening around you, right now.
Greta: Feel the warm sun on your back.
Gus: Listen to the wind blowing in the trees.
Gavin: Smell the flowers in the field.
Greta: Relax for a moment.
Gus: Have some fun!
S2: Gavin grabs his fiddle and begins to play.
S3: The grasshoppers start to hop and spin.
Greta: Come dance!
Aaron: Ants don’t dance.
Granny: Hey, that rhymes!
S1: Gavin starts singing.
Gavin: Squirrels leap
Horses prance
Dolphins twirl . . .
All Ants: But ants don’t dance!
Gavin: Birds tweet
Bees sting
Owls hoot . . .
All Ants: But ants don’t sing!
S2: Alex starts to wiggle.
Agnes: Now look what you’ve done!
Gus: We’re just having a good time.
Annie: Don’t you ever work?
All Grasshoppers: HAH!
Granny: We’re too busy enjoying life to work.
Aaron: We’ll see who’s laughing when winter comes and you have no food.
Scene 4
S3: Months later, snow covers the wheat field.
S1: The ants are inside counting their piles and piles of seeds.
S2: Agnes rings a bell.
Agnes: Time for chores!
S3: All the ants start working, except Alex.
Aaron: Why aren’t you working?
Alex (softly): Does anyone know any songs? Or stories? Or games?
S1: Nobody speaks.
Alex: It’s just that . . . we’re always working. We never relax. Or have any . . . fun.
S2: The ants are shocked.
S3: Suddenly, they hear scratching at the door.
S1: Aaron opens it. The grasshoppers are half-frozen.
Gavin: C-c-c-can we come in?
Granny: We’re f-f-f-freezing.
All Grasshoppers: And s-s-s-starving.
Agnes: Come in! Sit by the fire.
Alex: I’ll make tea.
Annie: I’ll get blankets.
Aaron: But fire sitting and tea drinking are not on our schedule!
Alex: C’mon, Dad. They need our help.
Scene 5
S2: The next morning, the ants show the grasshoppers their piles of seeds.
Granny: Wow! We should have worked more this year.
Agnes (proudly): We worked all summer and fall.
Gavin: Although . . . you have so many seeds.
Gus: More than you’ll ever need!
Aaron: What do you mean?
Granny (gently): You might not need to work as much as you do.
Gavin: Life can be so beautiful and fun.
Granny: There’s so much to appreciate.
S3: The ants think about this. Agnes rings a bell.
Agnes: Time for chores!
Greta: Maybe we can help?
Annie: Do you know how to do chores?
All Grasshoppers: Nope. But we can learn!
S1: Agnes and Granny wipe the windows.
Agnes: Wipe to the left, wipe to the right.
Granny: Wiggle your feet, from morning ’til night!
S2: Aaron and Gavin sweep the floor.
Aaron: Collect the dirt as you sweep with the broom.
Gavin: Wiggle your knees as you clean the room.
S3: The kids wash the dishes.
Annie: Wet the rag, and wash the mug.
Greta: Swish your hips—
Alex (smiling): —like a rhyming bug!
S1: The ants and the grasshoppers copy each other’s movements.
Gavin: I’m sweeping!
Greta: I’m wiping!
Gus: I’m washing!
All Grasshoppers: We’re working!
Annie: I’m singing!
Alex: I’m wiggling!
Agnes: I’m giggling!
All Ants: We’re having fun!
S2: Everyone laughs and starts to dance around the room.
Alex: Whoa, look out the window!
S3: The ants stop and watch the snow fall.
Annie: I never noticed how beautiful the snow is before.
Aaron (softly): I guess we were too busy working to notice.
S1: Granny pats Aaron on the back.
Granny: Thank you, ants, for saving us from the snow.
Gus: And for teaching us how to work.
Aaron: You saved us too, grasshoppers—in a different way.
Gavin: From now on, we’ll help you clean and gather seeds.
Agnes: And we’ll take breaks to relax and to enjoy the moment.
Granny: We can balance work AND fun.
Aaron (smiling): Right now, I think it’s time for some more fun!
S2: Gavin grabs his fiddle as the group starts to sing.
Gus: There’s a time for work,
Alex: And a time for play.
Greta: We’ll do our work,
Annie: Then enjoy the day!
THINK AND WRITE
Choose one of the ants or grasshoppers in the play. Then write a journal entry from that character’s point of view explaining what lesson you learned.
Can't Miss Teaching Extras
For another play based on one of Aesop’s fables, share The Lion and The Mouse (from our March/April 2019 issue) with your students. After reading, have a class discussion to compare and contrast the two plays, including their themes.
If you’re looking for even more of these compelling stories, take a look at The Library of Congress’s compilation of dozens of Aesop’s fables. Each one is brief and ends with the lesson it illustrates.
Introduce your students to Alex’s and Greta’s real-life insect counterparts. Your students will enjoy learning more about ants from this fun and informative 3-minute SciKids video about ants. Afterward, they can hop over to the Brittanica Kids grasshopper page and read cool facts about these fascinating insects.
Table of Contents
5. Differentiate and Customize
Struggling Readers, Multilingual Learners, Advanced Readers, Independent Learning
1. Preparing to Read
Set a Purpose for Reading/Preview Text Features (15 minutes)
Look at pages 22-23 with the class. Tell students that this play is based on a fable written long ago. It’s attributed to an ancient Greek storyteller named Aesop. (Make sure they know what a fable is: a short story that typically features animal characters and provides a lesson.) List some examples of other fables by Aesop that students may have heard of. (Examples might include “The Tortoise and the Hare,” “The Lion and the Mouse,” or “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.”) Then call on a volunteer to read aloud the Think and Read box on page 22. Ask students to think about the important lesson they will learn in this play by paying careful attention to what the ants and the grasshoppers show each other.
Have a volunteer read aloud the title and subtitle on pages 22-23. Point out the central image on the same pages. Ask students to explain what the illustration shows about the ants and the grasshoppers. What do the ants see the grasshoppers doing? How do the ants appear to feel about what they see?
Introduce Vocabulary (15 minutes)
While the play does not include definitions of vocabulary words with the text, a Vocabulary Skill Builder (available in your Resources tab) online previews six challenging words. You may also play our Vocabulary Slideshow, in which audio and images help students with pronunciation and comprehension.
Vocabulary words: chomping, strict, fiddle, prance, appreciate, and balance
Preview these terms by projecting or distributing our Vocabulary Skill Builder and completing it as a class. You may also play our Vocabulary Slideshow, in which audio and images help students with pronunciation and comprehension.
2. Close Reading
Focus on Fluency
Storyworks 3 plays provide a perfect opportunity for students to build fluency.
Remind students that the stage directions tell a reader or actor how to say a line or perform an action in the play. Direct students to page 24. Point to the word muttering in column 1. Read the dialogue aloud with appropriate expressions or actions. Ask students to repeat after you.
Project, distribute, or assign the Close-Reading and Critical-Thinking Questions to the class. Preview them together. Ask students to read the play again and answer the questions as a class or in pairs. (Alternatively, assign all or part of the Learning Journey Slide Deck, which contains the questions as well as other activities from this lesson plan and a link to the stories.)
Follow up with the SEL Focus activity.
Close-Reading Questions (30 minutes)
Critical-Thinking Questions (10 minutes)
3. SEL Focus
Promoting Well-Being
Have a class discussion about the lesson of the play: It’s important in life to find a balance between doing what you need to (work) and doing what you want to (play). Next, invite students to think about some of the things they have to do and some of the things they like to do. Ask: What’s one way you could (or already do) use the lesson from the play in your own life? Perhaps students have found ways to make chores or homework more fun or to mix some work into something fun they’re doing.
4. Skill Building and Writing
Featured Skill: Theme
Differentiate and Customize
Have students describe what’s happening in each illustration in the play. What are the ants doing? What are the grasshoppers doing? What is different about the final illustration? Ask pairs or individual students to write a caption for each picture and then share their captions with the class.
Many of the characters in the play have similar-sounding names. Ask students to find and underline the names of the ants in the Characters box. What do they notice about each of these names? (They all begin with the letter A.) Then ask students to find and circle the names of the grasshoppers. What do they notice about each of these names? (They all begin with the letter G.) As a group, practice saying all of the names correctly.
Ask students to create a three-panel comic strip based on a favorite scene from the play. They should make up their own dialogue for each of the characters and write it in dialogue bubbles. Remind them to include a title for their comic strip
We’ve created a Choice Board especially for this article that offers six varied activities for students to choose from. Students can do one activity or as many as they like, working at their own pace. Most of the activities on the Choice Board can be done away from a screen.
