DLTK's Educational Activities:  Aesop's Fables
The Grasshopper and the Ants Printable Felt Board Characters

In this section I've put together some simple pages to go with the fable about the Grasshopper and the Ants.  You can use them in a couple of ways:

Use the sheets as...  PUPPETS

• Either print the black and white sheet to color
  OR
• print the color characters
• Cut out each image and tape it to a popsicle stick or an unsharpened pencil.

Use the sheets as...  FELT BOARD CHARACTERS

• Either print the black and white sheet to color
  OR
• print the color characters
• You can cover with clear contact paper or laminate if you want them to last longer.
• Cut out each character.
• Cut out a small piece of coarse sandpaper and tape or glue it on the back of each character (if you laminated, it will need to be a larger piece of sandpaper).  The sandpaper will allow the characters to stick on your felt board.
• The fable is quite short, but if you own a felt board it's still nice to put up felt board characters as they are mentioned in the story.  I have included quotes from the story in italics to give ideas about how I might use the felt board characters.
  • (paragraph 1)  ... a grasshopper was hopping about:  put up the GRASSHOPPER
  • (paragraph 1)  ... group of ants:  put up the ANT
  • (paragraph 1) ... kernels of corn:  put up the CORN
  • throughout the story, point to the characters as they are mentioned
  • put up the moral and discuss.

Templates:

• Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

Template     color   or    B&W

Print friendly version of these instructions