Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for November


The Moon's the North Wind's Cooky

The Moon's the North Wind's cooky.

He bites it, day by day,

Until there's but a rim of scraps

That crumble all away.


The South Wind is a baker.

He kneads clouds in his den,

And bakes a crisp new moon that . . . greedy

North . . . Wind . . . eats . . . again! 


  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 23 Pinocchio Flies with a Pigeon to the Ocean from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi How Napoleon Crossed the Alps from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin A Robber in the Old Orchard from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess The King of the Birds (Part 1 of 2) from The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said by Padraic Colum A Spanish Hero from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge The New Clothes Fail (Part 2 of 2) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher Saint Columba (Part 2 of 2) from Our Island Saints by Amy Steedman
We Make Sail Again from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
The First Island from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Captain Smith Accused from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Mr. Crab and His Friends from Seaside and Wayside, Book One by Julia McNair Wright The Travelers and the Purse from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Harvest My Grain from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin Munachar and Manachar from Nursery Tales from Many Lands by Eleanor L. and Ada M. Skinner Buster Bear Gives It All Away from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess At Home from The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Bumble-Bee and Clover, Anonymous Little Blue Pigeon by Eugene Field   The Caterpillar, Anonymous The Little Green Orchard by Walter de la Mare Hark! Hark! The Lark! by William Shakespeare Dandelion by Nellie M. Garabrant
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Tortoise and the Ducks

The Tortoise, you know, carries his house on his back. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot leave home. They say that Jupiter punished him so, because he was such a lazy stay-at-home that he would not go to Jupiter's wedding, even when especially invited.

After many years, Tortoise began to wish he had gone to that wedding. When he saw how gaily the birds flew about and how the Hare and the Chipmunk and all the other animals ran nimbly by, always eager to see everything there was to be seen, the Tortoise felt very sad and discontented. He wanted to see the world too, and there he was with a house on his back and little short legs that could hardly drag him along.

One day he met a pair of Ducks and told them all his trouble.

"We can help you to see the world," said the Ducks. "Take hold of this stick with your teeth and we will carry you far up in the air where you can see the whole countryside. But keep quiet or you will be sorry."

The Tortoise was very glad indeed. He seized the stick firmly with his teeth, the two Ducks took hold of it one at each end, and away they sailed up toward the clouds.


[Illustration]

Just then a Crow flew by. He was very much astonished at the strange sight and cried:

"This must surely be the King of Tortoises!"

"Why certainly—" began the Tortoise.

But as he opened his mouth to say these foolish words he lost his hold on the stick, and down he fell to the ground, where he was dashed to pieces on a rock.

Foolish curiosity and vanity often lead to misfortune.