First Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for February

Hot Cross Buns



Natural History



Pussy Cat



Warm Hands

Animal Crackers

Animal crackers and cocoa to drink,

That is the finest of suppers I think;

When I'm grown up and can have what I please

I think I shall always insist upon these.

What do you  choose when you're offered a treat?

When Mother says, "What would you like best to eat?"

Is it waffles and syrup, or cinnamon toast?

It's cocoa and animals that I love most!


The kitchen's the cosiest place that I know;

The kettle is singing, the stove is aglow,

And there in the twilight, how jolly to see

The cocoa and animals waiting for me.


Daddy and Mother dine later in state,

With Mary to cook for them, Susan to wait;

But they don't have nearly as much fun as I

Who eat in the kitchen with Nurse standing by;

And Daddy once said, he would like to be me

Having cocoa and animals once more for tea.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 8 My Father Meets a Gorilla from My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett How Franklin Found Out Things from Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans by Edward Eggleston The Dance of the Sand-hill Cranes from Among the Pond People by Clara Dillingham Pierson Drakestail Goes To See the King from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Around the Fire by Lisa M. Ripperton Back to the Fatherland from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge The Pass (Part 1 of 3) from The Swiss Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins The Rain of Fire That Fell on a City from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Pussy-Cat Mew, Anonymous 		Lines and Squares by A. A. Milne
Three Little Owlets, Anonymous 		My Treasures by Robert Louis Stevenson King and Queen, Anonymous
The Ship by Gabriel Setoun 		I Dug and Dug amongst the Snow by Christina Georgina Rossetti
First row Previous row          Next row Last row
Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Around the Fire  by Lisa M. Ripperton

Tit for Tat

T HERE once lived a camel and a jackal who were great friends. One day the Jackal said to the Camel: "I know that there is a fine field of sugar cane on the other side of the river. If you will take me across, I'll show you the place. This plan will suit me as well as you. You will enjoy eating the sugar cane, and I am sure to find many crabs, bones, and bits of fish by the riverside, on which to make a good dinner."


[Illustration]

The Camel consented and swam across the river, taking the Jackal, who could not swim, on his back. When they reached the other side, the Camel went to eating the sugar cane, and the Jackal ran up and down the river bank devouring all the crabs, bits of fish, and bones he could find.

But being so much smaller an animal, he had made an excellent meal before the Camel had eaten more than two or three mouthfuls; and no sooner had he finished his dinner than he ran round and round the sugar-cane field, yelping and howling with all his might.

The villagers heard him, and thought: "There is a jackal among the sugar canes; he will be scratching holes in the ground and spoiling the roots of the plants." And they all went down to the place to drive him away. But when they got there they found to their surprise not only a jackal, but a camel who was eating the sugar canes! This made them very angry, and they caught the poor Camel and drove him from the field and beat and beat him until he was nearly dead.

When they had gone, the Jackal said to the Camel, "We had better go home." And the Camel said: "Very well; then jump upon my back as you did before."

So the Jackal jumped upon the Camel's back, and the Camel began to recross the river. When they had got well into the water the Camel said: "This is a gritty way in which you have treated me, friend Jackal. No sooner had you finished your own dinner than you must go yelping about the place loud enough to arouse the whole village, and bring all the villagers down to beat me black and blue, and turn me out of the field before I had eaten two mouthfuls! What in the world did you make such a noise for?"

"I don't know," said the Jackal. "It is a habit I have. I always like to sing a little after dinner."

The Camel waded on through the river. The water reached up to his knees—then above them—up, up, up, higher and higher, until he was obliged to swim. Then turning to the Jackal he said, "I feel very anxious to roll."  "Oh, pray don't; why do you wish to do so?" asked the Jackal. "I don't know," answered the Camel. "It is a habit I have. I always like to have a little roll after dinner." So saying, he rolled over in the water, shaking the Jackal off as he did so. And the Jackal was drowned, but the Camel swam safely ashore.