First Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for July

Over the Hills and Far Away



Bo-Peep



Buy a Broom



Lucy Locket




The Sugar-Plum Tree

Have you ever heard of the Sugar-Plum Tree?

'Tis a marvel of great renown!

It blooms on the shore of the Lollipop sea

In the garden of Shut-Eye Town;

The fruit that it bears is so wondrously sweet

(As those who have tasted it say)

That good little children have only to eat

Of that fruit to be happy next day.


When you've got to the tree, you would have a hard time

To capture the fruit which I sing;

The tree is so tall that no person could climb

To the boughs where the sugar-plums swing!

But up in that tree sits a chocolate cat,

And a gingerbread dog prowls below—

And this is the way you contrive to get at

Those sugar-plums tempting you so:


You say but the word to that gingerbread dog

And he barks with such terrible zest

That the chocolate cat is at once all agog,

As her swelling proportions attest.

And the chocolate cat goes cavorting around

From this leafy limb unto that,

And the sugar-plums tumble, of course, to the ground—

Hurrah for that chocolate cat!


There are marshmallows, gumdrops, and peppermint canes,

With stripings of scarlet or gold,

And you carry away of the treasure that rains

As much as your apron can hold!

So come, little child, cuddle closer to me

In your dainty white nightcap and gown,

And I'll rock you away to that Sugar-Plum Tree

In the garden of Shut-Eye Town.


  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 39 The Search for the Wicked Witch from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum The India-Rubber Man from Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans by Edward Eggleston A New Kind of Seed from Seed-Babies by Margaret Warner Morley Rattle-Rattle-Rattle and Chink-Chink-Chink from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Up the Stairs by Lisa M. Ripperton Conquest of the East from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge The Blessing (Part 2 of 2) from The Mexican Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins Saint Francis of Assisi (Part 1 of 2) from In God's Garden by Amy Steedman
The Ship by Gabriel Setoun
Bad Sir Brian Botany by A. A. Milne
The Lost Doll by Charles Kingsley
The Swing by Robert Louis Stevenson
Autumn Fires by Robert Louis Stevenson Some One by Walter de la Mare
Who Has Seen the Wind? 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.