In this fable The Ant and the Grasshoppers, retold as a play, Ant busily stores corn for the winter while the grasshoppers sing and dance in the sunshine, only to be caught out when winter strikes.This text supports the comprehension strategies of making and confirming predictions and summarising the main ideas. You can use this text to familiarise the students with the format of a play and to encourage fluent, expressive reading. Please note that the word count for this play is high because there are character names and stage directions.Text Featuresthe conventions of a play – the list of characters, the role of the reader, the stage directions (written in the present tense and in italics)the use of colour coding and upper-case letters to indicate the speaker the repetitionthe indicators of time – a long time away, day after day, the next day, winter is herethe use of italics (page 8) and exclamation marks for emphasisthe sense of tension as the grasshoppers’ predicament unfolds the lively illustrationsthe cross section of Ant’s home on page 6the word endings – -ing, -er, -y (as an “e” sound)the “k” sound for “ch” in “characters”the compound words – grasshoppers, everywhere, pancakesthe contractions – didn’t, don’t, I’ll, I’m, it’s, she’ll, we’ll, where’s.Themes covered in this book are: Food, Animals Birds and Insects, Character education, History, Science and TechnologyReading Level:12-14 (Green)
