Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for November


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 15 The Assassins Pursue Pinocchio from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi Sir Humphrey Gilbert from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Old Clothes and Old Houses from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess The Matchless Maiden Loses Her Golden Slipper (Part 1 of 2) from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum Christians to the Lions from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge If You Don't Like Conversation, Skip This Chapter (Part 3 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher Jephthah's Rash Promise and What Came from It from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Eric the Red from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall Don's Yellow Spring Flower from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Ass and His Driver from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Go A-Hunting from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin Romulus and Remus from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price Old Granny Fox Investigates from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess The Little Sol Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
April Rain by Robert Loveman All Things Bright and Beautiful by Cecil Frances Alexander   Hark! Hark! The Lark! by William Shakespeare The Universe by Walter de la Mare Answer to a Child's Question by Samuel Taylor Coleridge A Sudden Shower by James Whitcomb Riley
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Crow and the Pitcher

In a spell of dry weather, when the Birds could find very little to drink, a thirsty Crow found a pitcher with a little water in it. But the pitcher was high and had a narrow neck, and no matter how he tried, the Crow could not reach the water. The poor thing felt as if he must die of thirst.

Then an idea came to him. Picking up some small pebbles, he dropped them into the pitcher one by one. With each pebble the water rose a little higher until at last it was near enough so he could drink.

In a pinch a good use of our wits may help us out.


[Illustration]