Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December

Elf and Dormouse

Under a toadstool

Crept a wee Elf,

Out of the rain

To shelter himself.

Under the toadstool,

Sound asleep,

Sat a big Dormouse

All in a heap.

Trembled the wee Elf

Frightened, and yet

Fearing to fly away

Lest he get wet.

To the next shelter

Maybe a mile

Sudden the wee Elf

Smiled a wee smile.

Tugged till the toadstool

Toppled in two

Holding it over him

Gayly he flew.

Soon he was safe home,

Dry as could be.

Soon woke the Dormouse

"Good gracious me!

Where is my toadstool!"

Loud he lamented,

And that's how umbrellas

First were invented.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 5	Pinocchio Is Hungry from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi	The White Ship from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin	Sliding on the Ice from The Seasons: Winter by Jane Marcet	Fire for the King's Son from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum	The Empire of Rome from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge	Betsy Holds the Reins (Part 2 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher	The Old Man Who Fought against the Giants from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
	Foes'-fear from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall	Balsam Fir (Part 2 of 3) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch	The Dog, the Cock, and the Fox from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter	I Am Shipwrecked from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin	Hercules from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price	Peter Rabbit Tells His Story from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess	The Wedding Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
	A Sea Song from the Shore by James Whitcomb Riley	How Many Seconds in a Minute? by Christina Georgina Rossetti	The Monkeys and the Crocodile by Laura E. Richards	Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost	The Song of the Soldiers by Walter de la Mare	The Snowdrop by Alfred Lord Tennyson	Falling Snow, Anonymous

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.

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.