The Squirrel and the Acorns | Author’s Purpose
Posted by Denis Soukhanov on Tue, Aug 25, 2009 @ 04:29 PM
This story is adapted from an Indian folktale and introduces the concept of ‘Author's Purpose" to your elementary students.
There once was a squirrel who loved acorns. One day he looked down from a tree and saw lots of acorns on the ground. "I love acorns! I want all of them!" said the squirrel.
The squirrel climbed down from the tree to get the acorns. He picked up so many, he could hardly move. Just then a dog started barking nearby. The squirrel got scared and tried to climb back up the tree, but the acorns were too heavy. He slipped and dropped one.
The greedy squirrel did not want to lose a single acorn, so he reached out to catch it. Then he dropped all of the acorns and they fell back onto the ground.
Now it was too late! The squirrel quickly hurried up to the top of the tree to get away from the dog. In the end, the squirrel had no acorns, and he wished he had not been SO greedy!
Here are some questions to ask your students after they have listened to the story:
What did the author want you to know or think about after reading the story?
Why did the squirrel want all the acorns?
What happened when the dog barked?
What happened when the squirrel reached out to catch the acorn he dropped?
How did the squirrel feel at the end of the story?