[Aperte o play] - The Ant and the Cicada

[ THE ANT AND THE CICADA ]

AUTHOR: AESOP

Here you will find: ► Illustration ► Fable (text, audio, video) ► Lesson Plan

Winter had set in, and the ants were drying the moist wheat they had stored up during the summer. A hungry cicada walked by and asked them for some food.

The ants said:

Why didn’t you store food during the summer?

The cicada tried to argue:

But I wasn’t idle! I was singing beautiful tunes.

The ants said, roaring with laughter:

Well well well … if you sang in the summer, you should dance in the winter!

The fable teaches us that we shouldn’t neglect any of our tasks. The determination we have today will ensure our future well-being.

[LESSON PLAN AND RESOURCES]

PEDAGOGICAL AIMS

SOCIAL AWARENESS

Communicating clearly, listening actively, collaborating, working cooperatively in order to solve problems, and handling conflicts constructively.

SPECIFIC ABILITY

To acknowledge others’ strengths.

MAKER CAPACITY

Taking into consideration the different and diverse perspectives of the various people who interact in a particular situation.

THE ENVIRONMENT

The school as a space to understand art as a profession and collaboration for a shared project - making an anthill

1) ACTIVATE TO ENGAGE

Being a cicada and an ant for one day! Split the class into two groups: one of them will play the ants; the other will be the cicadas.
The Ants group - The challenge: The children will work collaboratively, piling up materials chosen for the purpose of building an anthill. It must be as high as possible and it mustn’t collapse!
Preparing the setting - refer to the tips in Tinkering Studio: Prepare your setting with materials that allow the children to play and explore the notions of balance and stability. Look around and find objects to create a heap.

Hot tips:

Find multiple objects: you may start with multiple materials of the same type such as building blocks, books, pasta, fruit baskets, stones, and even popsicle sticks.
Tell the children what you intend to do and invite them to go for ordinary objects. Find objects that aren’t normally piled up such as toys, kitchen utensils, paper rolls, mugs, cutlery, clothes ´pegs, and a number of other household items. Also, feel free to use natural materials: twigs, pine cones, and shells, among other materials that can become parts of towers.
At the same time, the Cicadas group will be taking part in a round dance. They could all stand in a circle, singing a cappella or listening to tunes on the classroom stereo.
After some time, the two groups switch roles: the ants become cicadas, while the cicadas become ants.

At the end of the activity, ask the students: “Which group was more fun? Which was the easier one? Why? Which was the harder one? Why? Have you ever seen an ant at work? How do ants work? What about cicadas? What purpose do they serve?”

The children should be allowed to chat freely so that they can come up with their own hypotheses.

Get ready for the story!

Ask the group if anyone knows the story The Cicada and the Ant. Show them the illustrations with the characters which are on Aperte o Play. The teacher may either tell the story to the class or present the audiobook version of the fable. These are different reading challenges: while the former encompasses listening to an audiobook without the aid of images, the latter relies on the teacher performing a storytelling session of the fable, duly supported by illustrations. A third option allows the teacher to press play for the students to listen to the recorded story, either in English or in Portuguese, while showing scenes of the fable. Choose the one that suits your group best!
How does an anthill work? - We have selected an incredible animation for students to watch on YouTube about how anthills are made. “What would you see if you could get into an anthill?” Ask the children to imagine the inside of an anthill and guide them while they register their experience. Paper, felt pens and imagination!
Peça para as crianças imaginarem um formigueiro por dentro e oriente o grupo a fazer um registro. Papel, canetinhas e imaginação!
After this creative activity, show the class the video: O Que Você Veria Se Pudesse Entrar em Um Formigueiro (What would you see if you could walk into an anthill)

2) PLAY TO CREATE

One after the other, just like … ants!
The group walks around the school yard as if they are all little ants: walking in line, picking little leaves, and walking along a circuit with motor challenges prepared by the teacher.
The Cicada and its sound [On A Cigarra e seu Som], on the YouTube channel Sons do Mundo, you can find the cicada singing audio. Ask the students about their feelings as they listen to the sound of a cicada singing. What is the cicada trying to say?
- Scientific Curiosities: : Did you know that only male cicadas can sing? They sing not only to attract the females, but also to keep predators away, mainly birds. When they sing, the shrieking sound they make hurts the sensitive hearing of the birds, and it also interferes with the communication among them.
Shall we give it a try? — One child stands at one end of the room, while another stands at the other end. The teacher whispers a short sentence in the ear of child A, who says that sentence to the other child, who is standing far from her. As child B hears the sentence, she repeats exactly what she heard. In the middle of the room, between the two children, are all the other children. They play the role of the cicada and sing a song very loudly in order to prevent communication between child A and child B, who are playing the role of birds.

The teacher may play the game again, allowing the children to take turns. In the end, the teacher asks one of the ‘birds’ how hard it was to communicate with the other ‘bird’ with so many cicadas singing together.