First Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for September

Dickory Dock



London Bridge



Puss at Court



Ye Frog's Wooing




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 43 The Magic Art of the Great Humbug from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
How the Balloon Was Launched from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Longfellow as a Boy from Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans by Edward Eggleston Birds' Eggs from Seed-Babies by Margaret Warner Morley Lord Peter from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Up the Stairs by Lisa M. Ripperton A Great Conflict from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge Judas Iscariot Day (Part 1 of 2) from The Mexican Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins What a Wise Man Learned from an Ass (Part 2 of 2) from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Bimble, Bamble, Bumble, Anonymous
If I Were King by A. A. Milne
The Peddler's Caravan by William Brighty Rands
North-west Passage by Robert Louis Stevenson Milking Time by Christina Georgina Rossetti The Elephant by Hilaire Belloc The Dog Lies in His Kennel by Christina Georgina Rossetti
First row Previous row          Next row Last row
The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Ants and the Grasshopper

One bright day in late autumn a family of Ants were bustling about in the warm sunshine, drying out the grain they had stored up during the summer, when a starving Grasshopper, his fiddle under his arm, came up and humbly begged for a bite to eat.

"What!" cried the Ants in surprise, "haven't you stored anything away for the winter? What in the world were you doing all last summer?"

"I didn't have time to store up any food," whined the Grasshopper; "I was so busy making music that before I knew it the summer was gone."


[Illustration]

The Ants shrugged their shoulders in disgust.

"Making music, were you?" they cried. "Very well; now dance!" And they turned their backs on the Grasshopper and went on with their work.

There's a time for work and a time for play.