Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for February

The Old Woman Tossed Up in a Blanket



The Carrion Crow



Sur le Pont d'Avignon



Charley over the Water

Spring

Sound the flute!

Now it's mute.

Birds delight,

Day and night.

Nightingale,

In the dale,

Lark in sky—

Merrily,

Merrily, merrily to welcome in the year.


Little boy,

Full of joy;

Little girl,

Sweet and small;

Cock does crow,

So do you;

Merry voice,

Infant noise;

Merrily, merrily to welcome in the year.


Little lamb,

Here I am;

Come and lick

My white neck;

Let me pull

Your soft wool;

Let me kiss

Your soft face;

Merrily, merrily we welcome in the year.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 6 Pinocchio Falls Asleep from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi King John and the Abbott from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Tea Table Talk from The Seasons: Winter by Jane Marcet Crow-feather-Cloak Again (Part 1 of 2) from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum Pax Romana from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge Betsy Holds the Reins (Part 3 of 3) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher The Avenger of Blood and the Cities of Refuge from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Harald Is King from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall Tamarack (Part 3 of 3) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch Belling the Cat from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter I Am Cast upon a Strange Shore from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin Apollo and Diana from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price Peter Has To Tell His Story Many Times from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess The Far Country Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
The Babie by Hugh Miller 		The Sugar-Plum Tree by Eugene Field The Owl and the Pussy-Cat by Edward Lear Chanticleer by Celia Thaxter Hide and Seek by Walter de la Mare A Fable by Ralph Waldo Emerson America by Samuel Francis Smith
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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.