On Saturday morning, Nicky asked her granny to put her hands on a sheet of paper so she could draw round them. Granny's hands were old and wrinkled. Nicky looked at her own slim, pink fingers and thought to herself:

'There's nothing beautiful about granny's hands. Why didn't our teacher ask us to draw an artist's hands, or even our own?'

Granny spent the whole weekend cooking, washing and ironing. Nicky's hands got tired of drawing everything granny did. Her chores were boring, and Nicky said to her:

'Gran, sing me a song or play the piano. Remember how you played it on granddad's birthday?'

'I don't have time, dear. I still have to clean your shoes and help you get ready for school,' granny smiled.

The weekend had been ruined. However, on Monday, the teacher said to the girl:

'Well done, Nicky. You wrote more than anyone else. Read us what your granny did at the weekend.'

Nicky started to read loudly and clearly:

'My granny prepared breakfast, ironed my dress and plaited some blue hair ribbons. Then she made me a mug of hot chocolate and some pancakes. She washed the dishes and put new covers on text books.'

A few children sniggered, and someone shouted out:

'What class is your granny in?'

'Does she still wear ribbons in her hair?' said someone else.

Nicky went red, but she carried on:

'Granny made the bed and carefully laid out my dolls on the bedspread. I like all my dolls to sit on the bed during the day.'

'Your granny plays with dolls!' the children laughed.

'Be quiet everyone,' the teacher said. 'Please go on, Nicky.'

'Granny sharpened my colouring pencils because we have drawing class today.'

The children started to laugh again, and the teacher said:

'Good, Nicky. Your granny must be very busy if she does all your chores as well as her own.'

Nicky went home feeling upset, and as she walked into the house she announced:

'Granny, it's not fair. You do everything for me. Starting from today, I'm going to do all my chores myself.'

Granny said nothing, and simply sighed sadly. Nicky put down her school bag and decided to sew on the button which had come off her coat. She pricked her finger and got the thread all tangled in the needle, but she didn't managed to sew on the button. Feeling upset, Nicky tried to cook dinner for herself, but she burnt her fish fingers and then broke her favourite plate as she tried to wash it up afterwards.

For the first time in her life, Nicky went to bed without doing her homework. She was so tired, she couldn't even begin to write. Before she fell asleep, Nicky looked at granny's hands and said:

'Granny, your hands are so old, but they do everything quickly and well. They must know some sort of secret...'

'Of course they do, dear, but they can't tell you. Let's swap hands and you can find out what the secret is,' granny replied.

'What do you mean, granny?! That's impossible,' Nicky said, grinning. And she secretly thought that she wouldn't like to swap her delicate pink hands for her granny's dark, wrinkled ones.

Nicky tossed and turned all night, and woke up an hour earlier than usual. Instead of lounging around in bed, she jumped up and discovered with horror that she had granny's wrinkled hands. The girl was about to burst into tears, but then she realised she had no time to cry. She had to wash, prepare breakfast for everyone, clean daddy's coat, finish her homework and then do a million more things.

Before Nicky even had time to think about what she had to do, her hands quickly began to complete one task after another.

But when her hands tried to put an unfinished sock and knitting needles into her school bag so that they could finish it at break time, Nicky resisted.

'Break time is for relaxing!'

'We don't like sitting doing nothing!' the hands replied.

'You need to relax sometimes,' Nicky said.

'Time to get up, dear,' said Granny's kind voice, and Nicky woke with a start.

A delicious breakfast was waiting for her on the table and her exercise book was packed up in her bag with her homework completed. Nicky went red, then she took hold of granny's hands and squeezed them tight.

'Granny, you have the best hands in the whole wide world. I want mine to be just the same. From now on I'm going to help you in everything you do'.

Questions and tasks:

Draw your granny's hands and write down everything they do in one day. Which member of your family's hands do the most work? Imagine you and your granny swap hands for a day. Describe what you do during that day. Say thank you to your granny for everything she does for you.