The Tortoise and the Hare

Aesop's race between the slow-and-steady tortoise and the hurry-up hare has dozens of entertaining twists and is full of interactive surprises. The school edition holds lots of challenges for the enquiring young mind, with an enchanting on-screen tale full of fun in its development of reading skills and computer literacy.

The Classroom Activities
The 23 classroom activities are suggestions and ideas for you to use either as they are or as examples for planning activities of your own. Many of them have worksheets for children to use, sometimes to cut out and colour, sometimes with simple instructions to follow. Many of the activities do not require use of the computer, and can be done with groups as large or as small as you like; suggestions are just that - suggestions.

The age range for which an activity is suitable will vary with respect to the linguistic and reading levels of your children, their experience, and the amount of help which you or an assistant may be able to give them. The suggested ages are therefore only to be regarded as broad guidelines.

Talking to the animals - Children can listen to animal conversations; then create their own.

Finishing line festivities - It's a long race. In this activity, groups plan and create lists, posters, schedules, speeches, and certificates for the big finish of the race.

Say it again - Will help your children to discover how variety in vocabulary choices create more interesting stories.

Reading along - Helps children to increase their sight vocabulary as they experience Tortoise's challenge.

Classifying words - Based on the vocabulary found in The Tortoise and the Hare, this encourages children to explore the flexibility of language.

"Be a story teller" - Retelling is an excellent way to work on comprehension. Storytelling for an audience; communicate the fun of reading a good tale.

Play and write - Children explore a page and write sentences describing what they discover.

To market, to market - Designing posters and advertisements for a rerun of the big race.

Dear Simon - Letter writing activity asking for and providing advice.

Lots of time - Looks at time and daily schedules.

Toe the line - Preparation for the big day. Hare has 30 days to plan and get fit. Practise counting days forwards and backwards.

Sizing each other up - Children measure each other and analyse the data.

Garden vegetable races - What do plants need to grow? Children plant and monitor the seeds of a variety of garden vegetables, and compare growth.

Scientific snack secrets - What are the ideal conditions for making popcorn? How do you grow edible crystals?

Animal variety show - What types of music are used in the story?

Board game designers - Designing a board race game.

Grandstand view - Can everyone see? Build a good grandstand.

Obstacle races - making an obstacle race round the school/grounds.

Food for thought - Do Tortoise and the Hare eat the right food to keep them fit? Do you? An exploration of healthy diets.

Which way did he go? - Using local and national maps. Drawing maps.

Tellers of tales - Children research and tell stories from other lands.

Time travellers - What stories do people tell when they return from journeys or holidays?

Creating myths and legends - Valuing each other's beliefs.

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