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 9	Pinocchio Sells His Spelling-Book from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi	The Black Douglas from Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin	The Old Orchard Bully from The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess	Water for the King's Son from The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum	Voyage and Shipwreck from The Discovery of New Worlds by M. B. Synge	Betsy Goes to School (Part 1 of 2) from Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher	The Present That Ehud Brought to King Eglon from Hurlbut's Story of the Bible by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
	The Sea Fight from Viking Tales by Jennie Hall	A Frog Chorus (Part 2 of 3) from Outdoor Visits by Edith M. Patch	Hercules and the Wagoner from The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter	I Make Me a Raft from Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children by James Baldwin	Daedalus and Icarus from A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales by Margaret Evans Price	Jimmy Skunk and Unc' Billy Possum Tell Stories from The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thornton Burgess	The Fitting Story from The Sandman: His Ship Stories by Willliam J. Hopkins
	The Fairies by William Allingham	The Owl and the Pussy-Cat by Edward Lear	Eletelephony by Laura E. Richards	Nonsense Verse by Edward Lear	Nobody Knows by Walter de la Mare	The Four Winds by Frank Dempster Sherman	The First Bluebird by James Whitcomb Riley

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.