La hormiga y los saltamontes 6-pack Author: Dawn McMillan ISBN: 9780790328577 Copyright Date: 2007 Grade Level: 1 Reading Level: G Strategy/Skill: Summarizing, Making predictions, Main ideas Genre: Play Theme/Topic: Environment Classification: Fiction Fluency: Early

Overview

In this fable, 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.

Suggested Purposes
This text supports the comprehension strategies of:

• making and confirming predictions
• summarizing the main ideas

You can use this text to familiarize 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 Features (Focus on only one or two per session.)

• the 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 color coding and upper-case letters to indicate the speaker
• the repetition
• the indicators of time – a long time away, day after day, the next day, winter is here
• the use of italics (page 8) and exclamation marks for emphasis
• the sense of tension as the grasshoppers’ predicament unfolds
• the lively illustrations
• the cross section of Ant’s home on page 6
• the word endings – -ing, -er, -y (as an “e” sound)
• the “k” sound for “ch” in “characters”
• the compound words – grasshoppers, everywhere, pancakes
• the contractions – didn’t, don’t, I’ll, I’m, it’s, she’ll, we’ll, where’s

For more information please see our Lesson Plan