First Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for November

Aiken Drum



King Cole



The Old Man in Leather



Ye Fairy Ship

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 17 The Bridge of the Apes from The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting Washington's Christmas Gift from Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans by Edward Eggleston The Good Little Cranes Who Were Bad from Among the Pond People by Clara Dillingham Pierson The Tongue-Cut Sparrow from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Up the Stairs by Lisa M. Ripperton The Siege of Troy from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge The Typhoon from The Filipino Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins Jacob's Wonderful Dream from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Sing, Little Bird, Anonymous The Island by A. A. Milne
I Would Like You for a Comrade by Judge Parry 		Nest Eggs by Robert Louis Stevenson Little May by Emily Huntington Miller Boats Sail on the Rivers by Christina Georgina Rossetti Hurt No Living Thing by Christina Georgina Rossetti
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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