First Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December

I Saw Three Ships



The Mulberry Bush



The North Wind and the Robin



Dance a Baby

The Little Plant

In the heart of a seed,

Buried deep, so deep!

A dear little plant

Lay fast asleep!


"Wake!" said the sunshine,

"And creep to the light!"

"Wake!" said the voice

Of the raindrops bright.


The little plant heard

And it rose to see

What the wonderful

Outside world might be!

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Week 26 The Rock from The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting A Long Journey from Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans by Edward Eggleston Melons and Their Cousins from Seed-Babies by Margaret Warner Morley Hafiz, the Stone-Cutter from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Around the Fire by Lisa M. Ripperton King Ahasuerus from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge How They Went to the Bog from The Irish Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins
The Bog from The Irish Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins 		The Voice from the Burning Bush from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
God's Care, Anonymous 		At Home by A. A. Milne
Who Likes the Rain? by Clara Doty Bates 		Singing Time by Robert Louis Stevenson Up in the Morning Early, Anonymous The Golden Rule, Anonymous Lady of All Beauty by Christina Georgina Rossetti
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Tortoise and the Ducks

The Tortoise, you know, carries his house on his back. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot leave home. They say that Jupiter punished him so, because he was such a lazy stay-at-home that he would not go to Jupiter's wedding, even when especially invited.

After many years, Tortoise began to wish he had gone to that wedding. When he saw how gaily the birds flew about and how the Hare and the Chipmunk and all the other animals ran nimbly by, always eager to see everything there was to be seen, the Tortoise felt very sad and discontented. He wanted to see the world too, and there he was with a house on his back and little short legs that could hardly drag him along.

One day he met a pair of Ducks and told them all his trouble.

"We can help you to see the world," said the Ducks. "Take hold of this stick with your teeth and we will carry you far up in the air where you can see the whole countryside. But keep quiet or you will be sorry."

The Tortoise was very glad indeed. He seized the stick firmly with his teeth, the two Ducks took hold of it one at each end, and away they sailed up toward the clouds.


[Illustration]

Just then a Crow flew by. He was very much astonished at the strange sight and cried:

"This must surely be the King of Tortoises!"

"Why certainly—" began the Tortoise.

But as he opened his mouth to say these foolish words he lost his hold on the stick, and down he fell to the ground, where he was dashed to pieces on a rock.

Foolish curiosity and vanity often lead to misfortune.