Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet



Songs for December


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 48 Drooping Wings from The Birds' Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin Casabianca from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Some More Friends Come with the Snow from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess Why the Sea Is Salt from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Into the Woods by Lisa M. Ripperton Discovery of the Pacific from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge A Castle on Brandywine (Part 2 of 2) from The Bears of Blue River by Charles Major Solomon on David's Throne from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Dreams of the Future from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
A Plague of Rats from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Treachery during Captain Smith's Absence from Richard of Jamestown by James Otis
Fall Picnics from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch The Fox and the Stork from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Have a New Suit of Clothes from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin The Hill from The Golden Windows by Laura E. Richards Happy Jack Squirrel Helps Unc' Billy Possum from The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton Burgess The Trafalgar Story from The Sandman: His Sea Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
The Cargo Story from The Sandman: His Sea Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
The Willow Man by Juliana Horatia Ewing Heigho, My Dearie by Eugene Field A Thanksgiving Fable by Oliver Herford A Tragic Story by Albert von Chamisso The Children of Stare by Walter de la Mare Humility by Robert Herrick Old Granny Dusk by James Whitcomb Riley
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The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Fox and the Grapes

A Fox one day spied a beautiful bunch of ripe grapes hanging from a vine trained along the branches of a tree. The grapes seemed ready to burst with juice, and the Fox's mouth watered as he gazed longingly at them.


[Illustration]

The bunch hung from a high branch, and the Fox had to jump for it, The first time he jumped he missed it by a long way. So he walked off a short distance and took a running leap at it, only to fall short once more. Again and again he tried, but in vain.

Now he sat down and looked at the grapes in disgust.

"What a fool I am," he said. "Here I am wearing myself out to get a bunch of sour grapes that are not worth gaping for."

And off he walked very, very scornfully.

There are many who pretend to despise and belittle that which is beyond their reach.