First Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for January

I Saw Three Ships



The Mulberry Bush



The North Wind and the Robin



Dance a Baby




My Shadow

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;

And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.


The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;

For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,

And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.


He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,

And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.

He stays so close beside me, he's a coward, you can see;

I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!


One morning, very early, before the sun was up,

I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;

But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,

Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.



  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 15 The Great Journey from The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting Washington and His Hatchet from Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans by Edward Eggleston The Dragon-Fly Children and the Snapping Turtle from Among the Pond People by Clara Dillingham Pierson
The Snappy Snapping Turtle from Among the Pond People by Clara Dillingham Pierson
Little One Eye, Little Two Eyes, Little Three Eyes from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Around the Fire by Lisa M. Ripperton Out of the Shadowland from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge Dingo and the Little Brown Hen from The Filipino Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins Saint George from In God's Garden by Amy Steedman
The Rabbits, Anonymous
Disobedience by A. A. Milne
April, Anonymous
Historical Associations by Robert Louis Stevenson Verses from The Song of Solomon, Bible
The Rain by Robert Louis Stevenson
Early Birds by Christina Georgina Rossetti
First row Previous row          Next row Last row
The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Hare and the Tortoise

A Hare was making fun of the Tortoise one day for being so slow.

"Do you ever get anywhere?" he asked with a mocking laugh.

"Yes," replied the Tortoise, "and I get there sooner than you think. I'll run you a race and prove it."

The Hare was much amused at the idea of running a race with the Tortoise, but for the fun of the thing he agreed. So the Fox, who had consented to act as judge, marked the distance and started the runners off.

The Hare was soon far out of sight, and to make the Tortoise feel very deeply how ridiculous it was for him to try a race with a Hare, he lay down beside the course to take a nap until the Tortoise should catch up.

The Tortoise meanwhile kept going slowly but steadily, and, after a time, passed the place where the Hare was sleeping. But the Hare slept on very peacefully; and when at last he did wake up, the Tortoise was near the goal. The Hare now ran his swiftest, but he could not overtake the Tortoise in time.

The race is not always to the swift.


[Illustration]

The Hare and the Tortoise