Literacy

1. Listen to a story

• Listen to the reading of The Day of Ahmed’s Secret.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrDkGA_wRZc

What did you like about the story? Was there anything about it that you disliked? Did it remind you of anything else that you have read or seen?

2. Revise verb tenses

• Use the Revision Card to remind yourself about the past tense.
• Rewrite Extracts 1 and 2 so that they are in the past tense. Decide what is best to do about the last paragraph in Extract 2.

3.  Think about the themes of the story

• Read Possible Themes. Pick the three of these that you think are most clearly shown in The Day of Ahmed’s Secret.
• Write 3-5 sentences about each of those themes. How are they shown in the story? What do you know about them from your life? (Watch the story again, if it helps to remind you).

Well done. Show your writing about themes to a grown-up. Tell them about the story of The Day of Ahmed’s Secret. You can check your answers to Extracts 1 and 2 at the end of this pack. 

Try these Fun-Time Extras

Can you research more about modern-day Egypt? (You could start with the FactFile. What else could you find out?)

Can you write about a day in your life in the same style as The Day of Ahmed’s Secret? (It could be a day from lockdown or from before.)

Revision Card – Past Tense

Extract 1

Re-write this extract so that it is in the simple past tense.

I am proud that I can carry these big heavy bottles all the way up the steps to the floor where she lives. I am proud that I can do this work to help my family.

I make more stops, and then I am hungry again. I look for the bright red and yellow cart where I can buy my lunch, and I find it in its usual place near the old building.

You will need these words:

• was
• could
• lived
• made
• looked
• could
• found

e.g. I was proud that I could carry…

Extract 2

Re-write the first four paragraphs into simple past tense.

Decide which verbs to change in the final paragraph.

(The modal verbs in the final paragraph might sound better if changed for others and some of the present tense might sound better unchanged.)

I hear the rose-water man before I see him. He clicks two cups together as he walks along the street so people hear him and come to him for a drink.

I give him my smile. He does not give me his, but our eyes meet and we know we are connected to the same day and to the city.

I do not buy his rose-water, but seeing him reminds me how hot and thirsty I am. I take a drink from the bottle of water I always carry in my cart.

There are more stops to make, and more times up and up narrow steps with my heavy load, and then I am back in my cart.

It is a long day. I think the moment will never come when I may share my secret, but of course I know that each day ends and that every moment has its time to be.