First Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December

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 20 The Black Prince from The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting Marion's Tower from Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans by Edward Eggleston The Crayfish Mother from Among the Pond People by Clara Dillingham Pierson
Two Little Crayfishes Quarrel from Among the Pond People by Clara Dillingham Pierson 		The Ragged Pedlar from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Around the Fire by Lisa M. Ripperton The Fall of Tyre from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge The Prize from The Filipino Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins Saint Augustine of Canterbury from In God's Garden by Amy Steedman
The Light-Hearted Fairy, Anonymous 		Jonathan Jo by A. A. Milne
Grasshopper Green, Anonymous 		Marching Song by Robert Louis Stevenson The City Child by Alfred Lord Tennyson Rock-a-Bye, Baby, Mother Goose A Frisky Lamb by Christina Georgina Rossetti
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

Belling the Cat

The mice once called a meeting to decide on a plan to free themselves of their enemy, the Cat. At least they wished to find some way of knowing when she was coming, so they might have time to run away. Indeed, something had to be done, for they lived in such constant fear of her claws that they hardly dared stir from their dens by night or day.

Many plans were discussed, but none of them was thought good enough. At last a very young Mouse got up and said:

"I have a plan that seems very simple, but I know it will be successful. All we have to do is to hang a bell about the Cat's neck. When we hear the bell ringing we will know immediately that our enemy is coming."

All the Mice were much surprised that they had not thought of such a plan before. But in the midst of the rejoicing over their good fortune, an old Mouse arose and said:

"I will say that the plan of the young Mouse is very good. But let me ask one question Who will bell the Cat?"

It is one thing to say that something should be done, but quite a different matter to do it.


[Illustration]