The Ant and the Grasshopper

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Ready for another adventure? The Ant and the Grasshopper won't be as perilous as The Boy Who Cried Wolf! But you may need your magnifying glass to see the characters!

The Ant and the Grasshopper

One summer a grasshopper met some ants busily working away. He couldn't believe how hard they were working, shouldn't they be having fun in the summer? So he asked them, "Why are you working so hard all summer long, you should be having fun, making music and dancing!"

The ants replied, "We are working hard to store up food and shelter for the winter. It will soon be cold and and then we will rest and play all warm in our ant hill. You should be working also to get yourself prepared for the long winter ahead or you won't have any food or shelter."

"That's no fun! I want to play and dance and make music all summer long!" said the Grasshopper, and off he went.

So the summer passed and autumn came. The family of Ants were bustling about in the warm sunshine, drying out the grain they had stored up during the summer.

Along came the Grasshopper, his fiddle under his arm and began making fun of the ants. "You're still working and I've played all summer long - you ants are so boring!" And off he went again, playing his fiddle and dancing merrily along.

Soon winter came and the wind whistled and the snow fell. The ants were snug in their ant hill having a winter feast when they heard a pitiful moan from outside. They went to investigate and were surprised to see the Grasshopper! He was hungry and freezing and a pitiful site to see. "Please, do you have a bit of food you can spare?" he said.

"What!" cried the Ants, "haven't you stored anything away for the winter? What in the world were you doing all last summer?"

"I didn't have time to store up any food," whined the Grasshopper; "I was so busy making music that before I knew it the summer was gone."

The Ants were frustrated with the Grasshopper for his laziness but had pity on him.

"Making music, were you?" they said. "Very well then. We will share our home and food with you that we worked so hard to store away, but you must play your fiddle and dance for us through the long winter."

The Grasshopper thankfully agreed and learned that next summer he must work before he plays.

The Moral Is: There's a time for work and a time for play.

What Did You Learn from The Ant and the Grasshopper?

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Wow! These audio classics are just filled with great lessons!

The Ant and the Grasshopper shows us it's definitely true that we should help out when there's work to be done and only then enjoy our time to play.

Otherwise we might starve!

Fun Facts

Ants

Ants are the muscle men of nature - they can lift twenty times their body weight!

If you and I did that it would be like lifting 1,500 pounds!

Did you know that there is a type of ant that corrals and milks aphids? I am NOT kidding!

Do a Google search, I dare you!

Grasshoppers

Grasshoppers have white blood!

Grasshoppers love to sing by rubbing their legs together - it's the males that sing to attract a wonderful female.

They don't have ears to hear their music with. Instead they have an organ in their knees that sense sound.

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