First Grade Read Aloud Banquet

Songs for November

Aiken Drum



King Cole



The Old Man in Leather



Ye Fairy Ship

The Land of Nod

From breakfast on through all the day

At home among my friends I stay,

But every night I go abroad

Afar into the land of Nod.


All by myself I have to go,

With none to tell me what to do—

All alone beside the streams

And up the mountain-sides of dreams.


The strangest things are there for me,

Both things to eat and things to see,

And many frightening sights abroad

Till morning in the land of Nod.


Try as I like to find the way,

I never can get back by day,

Nor can remember plain and clear

The curious music that I hear.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 15 The Great Journey from The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting Washington and His Hatchet from Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans by Edward Eggleston The Dragon-Fly Children and the Snapping Turtle from Among the Pond People by Clara Dillingham Pierson
The Snappy Snapping Turtle from Among the Pond People by Clara Dillingham Pierson 		Little One Eye, Little Two Eyes, Little Three Eyes from Fairy Tales Too Good To Miss—Around the Fire by Lisa M. Ripperton Out of the Shadowland from On the Shores of the Great Sea by M. B. Synge Dingo and the Little Brown Hen from The Filipino Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins Saint George from In God's Garden by Amy Steedman
The Rabbits, Anonymous 		Disobedience by A. A. Milne
April, Anonymous 		Historical Associations by Robert Louis Stevenson Verses from The Song of Solomon, Bible
The Rain by Robert Louis Stevenson 		Early Birds by Christina Georgina Rossetti
First row Previous row          Next row Last row
The Aesop for Children  by Milo Winter

The Frogs Who Wished for a King

The Frogs were tired of governing themselves. They had so much freedom that it had spoiled them, and they did nothing but sit around croaking in a bored manner and wishing for a government that could entertain them with the pomp and display of royalty, and rule them in a way to make them know they were being ruled. No milk and water government for them, they declared. So they sent a petition to Jupiter asking for a king.

Jupiter saw what simple and foolish creatures they were, but to keep them quiet and make them think they had a king he threw down a huge log, which fell into the water with a great splash. The Frogs hid themselves among the reeds and grasses, thinking the new king to be some fearful giant. But they soon discovered how tame and peaceable King Log was. In a short time the younger Frogs were using him for a diving platform, while the older Frogs made him a meeting place, where they complained loudly to Jupiter about the government.

To teach the Frogs a lesson the ruler of the gods now sent a Crane to be king of Frogland. The Crane proved to be a very different sort of king from old King Log. He gobbled up the poor Frogs right and left and they soon saw what fools they had been. In mournful croaks they begged Jupiter to take away the cruel tyrant before they should all be destroyed.


[Illustration]

"How now!" cried Jupiter "Are you not yet content? You have what you asked for and so you have only yourselves to blame for your misfortunes."

Be sure you can better your condition before you seek to change.