First Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for May

Jack and Jill



King Arthur



Lavender's Blue



Ye Frog and Ye Crow

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 52 The Last Stocking from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Amelia C. Houghton The Passing of Nicholas from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Amelia C. Houghton
Santa Claus from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Amelia C. Houghton 		The Christmas Tree from The Little Brown Bowl by Phila Butler Bowman The Elves and the Shoemaker from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Around the Fire by Lisa M. Ripperton The Dwarf and the Cobbler's Sons from Tales That Nimko Told by Mary Brecht Pulver The Legend of King Wenceslaus from The Pearl Story Book by Eleanor L. Skinner The Shepherd Maiden's Gift from The Pearl Story Book by Eleanor L. Skinner
The Glad New Year by Mary Mapes Dodge Babouscka by Edith M. Thomas The Willow Man by Juliana Horatia Ewing I Heard a Bird Sing by Oliver Herford While Stars of Christmas Shine by Emilie Poulsson The Frost King by Mary Mapes Dodge
What Can I Give Him? by Christina Georgina Rossetti
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Fox and the Crow

One bright morning as the Fox was following his sharp nose through the wood in search of a bite to eat, he saw a Crow on the limb of a tree overhead. This was by no means the first Crow the Fox had ever seen. What caught his attention this time and made him stop for a second look, was that the lucky Crow held a bit of cheese in her beak.

"No need to search any farther," thought sly Master Fox. "Here is a dainty bite for my breakfast."

Up he trotted to the foot of the tree in which the Crow was sitting, and looking up admiringly, he cried, "Good-morning, beautiful creature!"


[Illustration]

The Crow, her head cocked on one side, watched the Fox suspiciously. But she kept her beak tightly closed on the cheese and did not return his greeting.

"What a charming creature she is!" said the Fox. "How her feathers shine! What a beautiful form and what splendid wings! Such a wonderful Bird should have a very lovely voice, since everything else about her is so perfect. Could she sing just one song, I know I should hail her Queen of Birds."

Listening to these flattering words, the Crow forgot all her suspicion, and also her breakfast. She wanted very much to be called Queen of Birds.

So she opened her beak wide to utter her loudest caw, and down fell the cheese straight into the Fox's open mouth.

"Thank you," said Master Fox sweetly, as he walked off. "Though it is cracked, you have a voice sure enough. But where are your wits?"

The flatterer lives at the expense of those who will listen to him.