First Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for December

I Saw Three Ships



The Mulberry Bush



The North Wind and the Robin



Dance a Baby




Wynken, Blynken, and Nod

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night

Sailed off in a wooden shoe—

Sailed on a river of crystal light,

Into a sea of dew.

"Where are you going, and what do you wish?"

The old moon asked the three.

"We have come to fish for the herring-fish

That live in this beautiful sea;

Nets of silver and gold have we!"

Said Wynken,

Blynken,

And Nod.


The old moon laughed and sang a song,

As they rocked in the wooden shoe,

And the wind that sped them all night long

Ruffled the waves of dew.

The little stars were the herring-fish

That lived in the beautiful sea—

"Now cast your nets wherever you wish,—

Never afeard are we!"

So cried the stars to the fishermen three:

Wynken,

Blynken,

And Nod.


All night long their nets they threw

To the stars in the twinkling foam,—

Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe,

Bringing the fishermen home;

'Twas all so pretty a sail, it seemed

As if it could not be,

And some folks thought 'twas a dream they'd dreamed

Of sailing that beautiful sea—

But I shall name you the fishermen three:

Wynken,

Blynken,

And Nod.


Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,

And Nod is a little head,

And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies

Is a wee one's trundle-bed.

So shut your eyes while Mother sings

Of wonderful sights that be,

And you shall see the beautiful things

As you rock in the misty sea,

Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three—

Wynken,

Blynken,

And Nod.



  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 Fox and the Grapes

A Fox one day spied a beautiful bunch of ripe grapes hanging from a vine trained along the branches of a tree. The grapes seemed ready to burst with juice, and the Fox's mouth watered as he gazed longingly at them.


[Illustration]

The bunch hung from a high branch, and the Fox had to jump for it, The first time he jumped he missed it by a long way. So he walked off a short distance and took a running leap at it, only to fall short once more. Again and again he tried, but in vain.

Now he sat down and looked at the grapes in disgust.

"What a fool I am," he said. "Here I am wearing myself out to get a bunch of sour grapes that are not worth gaping for."

And off he walked very, very scornfully.

There are many who pretend to despise and belittle that which is beyond their reach.