Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for January

I Had a Little Nut Tree



The Four Presents



Little Man and Maid



The Jolly Tester




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 2 Master Cherry Gives a Present to Geppetto from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi King Alfred and the Beggar from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin The Snowball from The Seasons: Winter by Jane Marcet Fruit for the King's Son from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum Julius Caesar from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge Aunt Harriet Has a Cough (Part 2 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher How the River Jordan Became Dry from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
The Tooth Thrall from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall Suet Pudding for Woodpeckers (Part 2 of 3) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Tortoise and the Ducks from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Make My First Voyage from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin Cupid and Apollo from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price The Stranger from the North from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess The Blacksmith Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
The Mountain and the Squirrel by Ralph Waldo Emerson Wynken, Blynken, and Nod by Eugene Field How Doth the Little Crocodile by Lewis Carroll The Plaint of the Camel by Charles Edward Carryl Tired Tim by Walter de la Mare Norse Lullaby by Eugene Field Granny by James Whitcomb Riley
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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.