First Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for April

If All the World Were Paper



The Little Cock Sparrow



Ye Song of Sixpence



My Lady's Garden

The Land of Story-Books

At evening when the lamp is lit,

Around the fire my parents sit;

They sit at home and talk and sing,

And do not play at anything.


Now, with my little gun, I crawl

All in the dark along the wall,

And follow round the forest track

Away behind the sofa back.


There, in the night, where none can spy,

All in my hunter's camp I lie,

And play at books that I have read

Till it is time to go to bed.


These are the hills, these are the woods,

These are my starry solitudes;

And there the river by whose brink

The roaring lions come to drink.


I see the others far away

As if in firelit camp they lay,

And I, like to an Indian scout,

Around their party prowled about.


So when my nurse comes in for me,

Home I return across the sea,

And go to bed with backward looks

At my dear land of Story-Books.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 51 Vixen, the Naughty Reindeer from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Amelia C. Houghton Nicholas Goes Down the Chimney from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Amelia C. Houghton The Little Tree That Longed for Other Leaves from Good Stories for Great Holidays by Frances Jenkins Olcott Why the Chimes Rang from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Up the Stairs by Lisa M. Ripperton The First Christmas Tree from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Amelia C. Houghton A Present for Nicholas from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Amelia C. Houghton Holly Gets Its Name from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Amelia C. Houghton
A Christmas Carol by Christina Georgina Rossetti Kriss Kringle by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Santa Claus, Anonymous 		A Christmas Song by Phillips Brooks An Old English Carol, Anonymous The Waits by Margaret Deland A Christmas Hymn by Christina Georgina Rossetti
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Lion and the Mouse

A Lion lay asleep in the forest, his great head resting on his paws. A timid little Mouse came upon him unexpectedly, and in her fright and haste to get away, ran across the Lion's nose. Roused from his nap, the Lion laid his huge paw angrily on the tiny creature to kill her.

"Spare me!" begged the poor Mouse. "Please let me go and some day I will surely repay you."

The Lion was much amused to think that a Mouse could ever help him. But he was generous and finally let the Mouse go.

Some days later, while stalking his prey in the forest, the Lion was caught in the toils of a hunter's net. Unable to free himself, he filled the forest with his angry roaring. The Mouse knew the voice and quickly found the Lion struggling in the net. Running to one of the great ropes that bound him, she gnawed it until it parted, and soon the Lion was free.


[Illustration]

"You laughed when I said I would repay you," said the Mouse. "Now you see that even a Mouse can help a Lion."

A kindness is never wasted.