The Ant and the Grasshopper

The ant and the grass hopper story and exercise

In a field one summer's day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart's content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great effort an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.

"Why not come and chat with me," said the Grasshopper, "instead of toiling and moiling away?" "I am helping to lay up food for the winter," said the Ant, "and recommend you to do the same." "Why bother about winter?" said the Grasshopper; "we have got plenty of food at present."

But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing, every day, corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer.

Then the Grasshopper knew..

The moral of the story: work today and you can reap the benefits tomorrow!

Questions about the story

What was the grass hopper doing one summers day?

What was the ant doing? 

What did the grasshopper want the ant to do?

Why did the ant say no?

Did the grass hopper agree?

When winter came did the grass hopper have plenty of food?

What was the ant doing in the winter time?

Do you agree with the moral?

The Lion and the Mouse

Story about the lion and the mouse and exercise

Once when a Lion was asleep, a little Mouse began running up and down upon him. This soon wakened the Lion, who placed his huge paw upon him and opened his big jaws to swallow him.

"Pardon, O King!" cried the little Mouse, "Forgive me this time. I shall never repeat it and I shall never forget your kindness. And who knows, but I may be able to do you a good turn one of these days?"

The Lion was so tickled at the idea of the Mouse being able to help him, that he lifted up his paw and let him go.

Sometime later a few hunters captured the King and tied him to a tree while they went in search of a wagon to carry him on.

Just then the little Mouse happened to pass by, and seeing the sad plight in which the Lion was, ran up to him and soon gnawed away the ropes that bound the King of the Beasts. "Was I not right?" said the little Mouse, very happy to help the Lion.

MORAL: Little friends may prove great friends.

Exercise about the story

What did the mouse do?

Why did he let the mouse go?

What did he call the lion?

Who captured the lion?

How did the mouse free the lion?

What does the moral mean?

THE GOOSE WITH THE GOLDEN EGGS

Story about the Goose with the Golden Egg and exercise

Once upon a time, a man and his wife had the good fortune to have a goose which laid a golden egg every day. Lucky though they were, they soon began to think they were not getting rich fast enough.

They imagined that if the bird must be able to lay golden eggs, its insides must be made of gold. And they thought that if they could get all that precious metal at once, they would get mighty rich very soon. So the man and his wife decided to kill the bird.

However, upon cutting the goose open, they were shocked to find that its innards were like that of any other goose!

Moral: think before you act

Exercise about the story

What did the goose lay?

Did they think they would get rich fast?

What did the man and wife imagine?

What did the man and wife decide to do?

What did they find after cutting open the bird?

What does the moral mean?

Promise to a Mother

A story about the promise to a mother

Once upon the time, in a village, lived a mother and a daughter. They were every poor.
Inthis same village there also lived a very rich man. He was a chief in the village. He was a very bad chief. The people who lived in the village hated him, but they couldn't do anything to him. The poor people were forced to work in his fields. He paid them so little. They had to work all day long.

The girl's mother had to be the chief's employee also. She too had to work all day long.

When she got home she was exhausted. Most time she fell asleep as soon as she arrived home.

Before the rich man had come to the village the girl's mother would take the girl on her

knee and tell her stories. Now the mother never really had time to talk to her daughter. The

daughter had not heard story from her mom for a long, long time. She missed these stories.

She had not talked to her mother for such a long time. The girl felt pity for her mom.

She knew that her mother was tired. But secretly she really wanted to hear a story from

her. Also she had a lot of questions to ask. The mother had made plans to send the girl

away to school to study and get an education. She wondered why. She wanted to know and

she asked her mother many times.

One day when her mom was not feeling well and could not go to work, she called her

daughter. She sat beside her mother and the mother told a story to the daughter about two

birds. The mom said, "Once upon a time there were two brother birds that lived in a nest.

They couldn't fly well yet. One day their mom went to look for food for them.

A storm came. The wind blew hard. It blew so hard that the young birds were thrown from

the nest and they were separated.

One bird blew to another country. There a gentleman caught him and looked after him

very well. He grew up to be well education, gentle and kind. He had a good life.

The other bird blew to the ground. There a bad man caught him and forced him to work.

The second bird grew up to be like the mean man. He became a bad bird."

Now she understood her mom's story and she could see that her mother loved her enough

to send her away so that she might have a better life.

She promised her mom that when she grew up she would leave and get an education and

be a good girl. She promised her that she would return and take her mother away to a

better place.

Her mother hugged her and told the girl that she was proud of her and that she was happy

to hear her promise. When the girl grew up she did leave her mother and went away to

study. She kept her promises to her mother and they live happily ever after.