Second Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for December

The Little Turtle

There was a little turtle.
He lived in a box.
He swam in a puddle.
He climbed on the rocks.

He snapped at a mosquito.
He snapped at a flea.
He snapped at a minnow.
And he snapped at me.

He caught the mosquito.
He caught the flea.
He caught the minnow.
But he didn't catch me. 

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 8	Geppetto Makes Pinocchio New Feet from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi	Bruce and the Spider from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin	Jenny Wren Arrives from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess	Through the Three Woods and to the King's Castle from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum	A Great World Power from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge	A Short Morning (Part 2 of 2) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher	Saint David from Our Island Saints by Amy Steedman
	Gyda's Saucy Message from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall	The Call of Wild Geese (Part 1 of 3) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch	The Boy and the Filberts from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter	I Visit the Wreck from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin	Arcas and Callisto from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price	Prickly Porky Nearly Chokes from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess	The Unloading Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
	The Night Wind by Eugene Field	Humility by Robert Herrick	Disobedience by A. A. Milne	The Sea, Anonymous	Unstooping by Walter de la Mare	God Bless Our Native Land by C. T. Brooks	Lullaby of an Infant Chief by Sir Walter Scott

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

A Town Mouse once visited a relative who lived in the country. For lunch the Country Mouse served wheat stalks, roots, and acorns, with a dash of cold water for drink. The Town Mouse ate very sparingly, nibbling a little of this and a little of that, and by her manner making it very plain that she ate the simple food only to be polite.

After the meal the friends had a long talk, or rather the Town Mouse talked about her life in the city while the Country Mouse listened. They then went to bed in a cozy nest in the hedgerow and slept in quiet and comfort until morning. In her sleep the Country Mouse dreamed she was a Town Mouse with all the luxuries and delights of city life that her friend had described for her. So the next day when the Town Mouse asked the Country Mouse to go home with her to the city, she gladly said yes.

When they reached the mansion in which the Town Mouse lived, they found on the table in the dining room the leavings of a very fine banquet. There were sweetmeats and jellies, pastries, delicious cheeses, indeed, the most tempting foods that a Mouse can imagine. But just as the Country Mouse was about to nibble a dainty bit of pastry, she heard a Cat mew loudly and scratch at the door. In great fear the Mice scurried to a hiding place, where they lay quite still for a long time, hardly daring to breathe. When at last they ventured back to the feast, the door opened suddenly and in came the servants to clear the table, followed by the House Dog.

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

The Country Mouse stopped in the Town Mouse's den only long enough to pick up her carpet bag and umbrella.

"You may have luxuries and dainties that I have not," she said as she hurried away, "but I prefer my plain food and simple life in the country with the peace and security that go with it."

Poverty with security is better than plenty in the midst of fear and uncertainty.