AnyOneCanRead®

      
Module B – Lessons 31 to 40

              
Click here for Lesson 31
Click here for Lesson 32
Click here for Lesson 33
Click here for Lesson 34
Click here for Lesson 35
Click here for Lesson 36
Click here for Lesson 37
Click here for Lesson 38
Click here for Lesson 39
Click here for Lesson 40

    

Lesson 31 – Poems And Rhymes

   
NEW WORDS: branch, curl, diet, eels, faint, faraway, fighting, gravel, joggles, katydid, lion, moan, mouselings, nickel, pardon, parts, patch, pickle, pizza, places, porcupine, pretend, prickle, pumpernickel, quivery, river, scratch, sheet, shiver, shows, sliver, snack, sneeze, sort, sour, squeal, squirm, starts, suppress, tickle, tickles, tucked, tummy, unicorn, wrinkle, yourself
    
    

Open House
   
If I were a tree,
I’d want to see,
A bird with a song,
On a branch of me.

I’d want a quick
Little squirrel to run
Up and down
And around, for fun.

I’d want the cub
Of a bear to call,
A porcupine, big,
And a tree-toad, small.

I’d want a katydid,
Out of sight,
On one of my leaves,
To sing at night.

And down by my roots,
I’d want a mouse,
With six little mouselings,
In her house.

    
Poem by Aileen Fisher
    
     

The Lion And The Unicorn
   
The Lion and the Unicorn,
Were fighting for the crown,
The Lion beat the Unicorn,
All around the town.

Some gave them white bread,
And some gave them brown,
Some gave them plum-cake,
And sent them out of town.

   
   

Pretending
   
When you are in bed,
And it’s cold outside,
Do you ever pretend,
That you have to hide?

Do you curl up your toes?
Do you wrinkle your nose?
Do you make yourself little,
So none of you shows?

Do you pull the sheet,
Over the whole of your face,
And pretend you are in
Some faraway place?

Mother thinks you are sleeping,
But she does not know,
That all tucked in your bed,
You have places to go.

   
Poem by Bobbi Katz
   
     

A Strange Old Woman
   
There was an old woman,
And what do you think?
She lived upon nothing,
But snack food and drink.

Snack foods and drink,
The chief parts of her diet,
And yet this old woman,
Could never be quiet!

   
   
Three Tickles
   
Pizza, Pickle,
Pumpernickel,
My little guy
Shall have a tickle.

One for his nose,
And one for his toes,
And one for his tummy,
Where the hot dog goes.

   
Poem by Dennis Lee
   
    

Five Little Chickens
   
Said the first little chicken,
With a queer little squirm,
“I wish I could find
A fat little worm.”

Said the next little chicken,
With an odd little shrug,
“I wish I could find
A fat little slug.”

Said the third little chicken,
With a sharp little squeal,
“I wish I could find
Some nice yellow meal.”

Said the fourth little chicken,
With a small sigh of grief,
“I wish I could find
A little green leaf.”

Said the fifth little chicken,
With a faint little moan,
“I wish I could find
A wee gravel stone.”

“Now, see here,” said the mother,
From the green garden patch,
“If you want your breakfast,
Just come here and scratch.”

   
    

Sneeze
   
There’s a sort of tickle,
The size of a nickel,
A bit like the prickle,
Of sweet-sour pickle.
It’s a quivery shiver,
The shape of a sliver,
Like eels in a river.
A kind of a wiggle,
That starts as a jiggle,
And joggles its way to a tease,
Which I cannot suppress any longer,
I guess,
So pardon me,
Please,
While I sneeze.

   
Poem by Maxine Kumin
     
     
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Core Knowledge (R) Independent Reading 
      
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Fables   
    

Lesson 32 – Part One 

   
NEW WORDS: fables, fools, gods
    

King Log and King Crane
   
Once, the frogs said, “We wish we had a king! We need a king! We must have a king!” The frogs spoke to the gods. They said, “We ask you, the gods, to send us a king!”

“The frogs are fools,” said the gods. “As a joke, let us send them a big log to be their king.”

The gods got a big log and let it drop. The log fell in the pond and made a big splash. The frogs were scared of the log. They said, “King Log is strong! We must hide from him in the grass!”

As time went by, the frogs came to see that King Log was tame. He did not bite. He did not run. He just sat there. “King Log is not a strong king!” said one frog. “I wish we had a strong king!”

   

“I do, too! We must have a strong king!”

The frogs spoke to the gods. They said, “We ask you, the gods, to send us a strong king, and send him soon!”

This time, the gods sent a crane to be king of Frog Land. King Crane was not like King Log. He did not just sit there. He ran fast on his long legs, and he ate lots of the frogs.

The frogs were sad. “King Crane is a bad king,” they said. “We miss King Log! He was a fine king. We made a bad trade!” The frogs spoke to the gods. They said, “We ask you, the gods, to send us back King Log!”

The gods were mad. “Fools!” they said. “You said you must have a strong king. We sent you one. He is yours to keep!”

   
   

The Two Dogs
   
Once two dogs met. One of them was a tame dog who made his home with men. One was a dog who ran free. The dog who ran free stared at the tame dog and said, “Why is it that you are so plump, and I am so thin?”

“Well,” said the tame dog, “I am plump because the men feed me. I do not have to run all the time to get my food. My job is to keep the home safe when the men are in their beds. When they wake up, they feed me scraps of food from their plates.”

“Your life must be a fine life,” said the thin dog. “I wish my life were like yours.”

   

The plump dog said, “If you will help me keep the home safe, I bet the men will feed you, too.”

“I will do it!” said the thin dog. But just as the thin dog said this, the moon shone on the neck of the plump dog. The thin dog said, “What is that on your neck?”

“I am on a rope when the sun is up,” said the plump dog.

“Rope?” said the thin dog. “Do they keep you on a rope?”

“Yes,” said the plump dog. “When the moon is up, the men let me run free. But when the sun shines, they keep me on a rope. I can not run and be free when the sun is up, but it is not so bad.”

“No, no!” said the thin dog, as he ran off. “I will not have a rope on my neck. You can be plump. I will be free!”

    
       
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Core Knowledge (R) Independent Reading 
      
(Review guidelines for publishing Core Knowledge (R) materials at the bottom of this page-view.)

Fables   
     

Lesson 33 – Part Two

    
NEW WORDS: hares, mules, noon, scares
   
    

The Hares and the Frogs
   
Three hares stood in the grass. “I am sad,” one of them said. “I wish we were brave.”

“So do I,” said the next one. “But we are not brave. A splash in the brook scares us. The wind in the grass scares us. We are scared all the time.”

“Yes,” said the last one. “It is sad to be a hare.” Just then, there was a splash in the brook. The splash scared the hares. They ran off to hide. As they ran, they scared a bunch of frogs.

“Look,” said one of the hares. “The frogs are scared of us!”

“Yes, they are!” said the next hare. “They are scared of us! Well, I’m glad I am not a frog!”

“Yes!” said the last hare. “In the end, it is good to be a hare!”

   
   

The Two Mules
   
Once, a man went on a trip with two mules. He set five packs on one mule, and five packs on the next one. The black mule was strong. The mule with spots was not as strong, and by noon, he was tired. The mule with the spots felt the packs press on his back, and he could not keep up with the black mule.

The mule with the spots spoke to the black mule. “I hate to ask,” he said, “but would you help me with my packs?”

The black mule did not stop to help the mule with spots. “I have my five packs, and you have your five,” he said.

The mule with spots went on as long as he could. At last, he fell and could not get up. The man set all ten of the packs on the black mule. “What a fool I was!” the black mule said. “I did not help the mule with spots when I should have. If I had, I would not have to lift all of his packs, as well as mine.”

      
   

The Dog and the Mule
   
Once, there was a man who had a dog and a mule. The man gave the dog scraps of food from his plate. He let the dog lick his spoon. The dog would sit on the man’s lap and lick him. The man would rub the dog and kiss him. The mule would look in and see the dog on the man’s lap. He felt sad. He felt left out.

“The man feeds me,” said the mule, “but I do not get food from his plate. I’m left out because I am a mule. I should act like a dog. If I do that, the man will like me just as much as he likes the dog.” So the mule left his pen and went in the man’s home. He set his feet on the man’s lap and gave the man a big, wet lick.

The man was scared. He gave a shout and let his plate drop. It broke with a crash. The man fell down, too. When the man got up, he was mad at the mule. He made the mule run back out to his pen.

   
   
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Core Knowledge (R) Independent Reading 
      
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Fables
     

Lesson 34 – Part Three

  
NEW WORDS: loft, shame, straw
    
   

The Bag of Coins
   
Once, two men went on a trip. One of them found a bag of coins on the ground, at the foot of a tree. “Look what I found!” he said. “It is a bag of coins!”

“Good!” said the next man. “We can count the coins and see what we have!”

“No,” said the man with the bag. “The coins in this bag are not OUR coins. They are MY coins. I found them. They are all mine!”

Just then, there was a loud shout. There were a bunch of men, and they were mad. “Look!” they shouted. “There is a man with the bag. He stole our coins!”

“Get him!” said the rest.

The man with the coins was scared. “Those men are mad,” he said. “If they see US with the coins, we will be in a bad spot.”

“No, no,” said the man next to him. “If they see YOU, you will be in a bad spot. Those are not OUR coins. Those are YOUR coins. You found them. They are all yours.”

   
   

The Dog and the Ox
   
Once, a dog took a nap on a pile of straw in a box. But the straw in the box was not a bed. When the ox came home, he saw the straw in his food box. But he could not get to the straw, because the dog was on top of it. “Dog,” said the ox, “could you sleep up in the loft? I would like to munch on the straw in my food box.”

The dog woke up, but he would not get off the straw. He was mad that the ox woke him up.

At last, a man came in and saw the dog on the straw. “Bad dog!” said the man. “You did not need that straw, but you would not let the ox have it! Shame on you! Get up!”

   
   

The Fox and the Grapes
   
A fox saw a bunch of ripe grapes that hung from the branch of a tree. The fox said, “Those grapes look good. I will get them and make them my lunch.” The fox stood up on his back legs, but he could not grab the grapes. The fox made a hop, but he could not grab the grapes. The fox ran and made a big jump, but he still could not get the grapes.

At last, the fox sat down on the ground. “What a fool I am!” said the fox. “I can tell that those grapes are sour. They would not have made a good lunch.”

   
     
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Core Knowledge (R) Independent Reading 
      
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Lesson 38 – Space Hawk: “Talker”

   
NEW WORDS: Earthlings, English, Syn, billions, bottom, builds, chapter, doc, forth, genius, learns, listen, match, matches, millions, mixes, movies, nothing, other’s, per, phone, phrases, puzzle, questions, radios, repeat, second, sentences, signals, speaker, speakers, talker, talker’s, talking, translates, tries, trying, tweak, wins, works   
   
    

Good old HOLLY! You’ve learned about her. She’s a “must.” Aliens “see” Earth with her. We must have her!

But we have to talk to the Aliens, too. How do we do that? We need words. We must know their words, and they must know our words. “TALKER” helps us! TALKER learns their words, then turns them to English. Now we can talk to them, and they can talk to us.

Here’s life without TALKER. Funny looks, questions, hand signals, and back and forth. We get mad. They get mad. We yell. They yell. What do we mean? What do they mean? Nothing makes sense. We can’t learn, and they can’t learn. We can’t make friends. We give up. They give up. No one wins. We can’t be friends. SO! We HAVE to know each other’s words! 

Here’s how it works. We get near a world. We listen to radios, TVs, phone calls, movies, and people talking in the street. TALKER hears billions of words. Alien words, that is. And fast! In a short time!

TALKER’s “A.I.” is scary good! It takes their words, it mixes them up, and it tries to match their words to ours. It’s fast! Millions of tries per second! So TALKER learns. It finds phrases that repeat, and it finds their most-used words.

   

It works like a puzzle. One little bit makes sense. Then a little more. Then even more. In just one day, TALKER learns a LOT. It builds sentences. Then it matches them to English. Some make sense. Some don’t. TALKER keeps trying. It translates. Back and forth. More and more makes sense. English to Alien. Alien to English. TALKER learns FAST!

So, we meet with Aliens. We have speakers. They’re on our shirts. We talk. The speaker talks in Alien! They talk. Our speaker talks in English! You get used to it. It’s weird at first. But soon, it’s easy.

Sometimes, TALKER needs help. You will meet Doc Syn soon. In the next chapter. He is a word genius. He can tweak TALKER. That comes in handy. With REALLY weird Alien words!

Bottom line? TALKER is a “must!” What if we didn’t have TALKER? Aliens and Earthlings could not learn about each other. Thank you, TALKER. We learn their words! They learn our words! Things make sense!

TALKER, you rock!

   
        
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Lesson 39 – Poems And Rhymes

   
NEW WORDS: Benjamin, Franklin, Missie’s, Tucker, Tucker’s, Wuzzy, barnyard, belly, breakfast’s, bulls, caterpillar, chook, cock, cocks, cooking, doings, evening, fellow, firefly, fleece, flinging, fuzzy, grinder, healthy, heels, lit, madam, mouths, nibble, nicest, overhead, owns, pantry, scissors, scowled, silent, sinks, speckled, speech, springing, stocking, supper’s, swift, troubled, valley’s, version, watts, wealthy, winging, woolly
   
    

Lost Wife
   
Ting-a-ling-ling,
The scissorsgrinder,
Lost his wife,
And couldn’t find her!

   
   

The Train Goes Past
   
Hurry up engine,
And hurry up, train.
Missie’s going to ride,
On the road again.

Swift as lightning,
And smooth as glass,
Take off your hat,
When the train goes past.

   
  

Big Bulls
   
Right out in our barnyard,
Two big bulls fought today.
One of the bulls was red,
And the other one ran away.

   
   

Fish
   
The little fish are silent,
As they swim round and round.
Their mouths are ever talking,
A speech without a sound.

Now aren’t the fishes funny,
To swim in water clear,
And talk with words so silent,
That nobody can hear?

   
Poem by Arthur S. Bourinot
   
     

Pretty John Watts
   
Pretty John Watts,
We are troubled with rats.
Will you drive them,
Out of the house?

We have mice, too, in plenty,
They feast in the pantry,
But let them stay, and nibble away,
What harm in a little brown mouse?

   
   

My Father Owns The Butcher Shop
   
My father owns the butcher shop,
My mother cuts the meat,
And I’m the little hot dog,
That runs around the street.

   
   

The Dreadful Doings Of Jelly Belly
   
Jelly Belly Bit,
With a big fat bite.
Jelly Belly fought,
With a big fat fight.

Jelly Belly scowled,
With a big fat frown.
Jelly Belly yelled,
Till his house fell down.

   
Poem by Dennis Lee
   
    

Cock-Crow
   
Cocks crow in the morn,
To tell us to rise,
And he who lies late,
Will never be wise.

For early to bed,
And early to rise,
Is the way to be healthy,
And wealthy and wise.
   
(And the Benjamin Franklin version:

Early to bed, early to rise,
Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.)

   
   

Old Dan Tucker
   
Get out of the way,
For old Dan Tucker,
He’s come too late,
To get his supper.

Supper’s over,
And breakfast’s cooking,
Old Dan Tucker’s,
Standing looking.

   
    

Firefly
   
A little light is going by,
Is going up to see the sky,
A little light with wings.

I never could have thought of it,
To have a little bug all lit,
And made to go on wings.

 
Poem by Elizabeth Madox Roberts
   
     

Sleep, Baby
      
Sleep, baby, sleep,
Our cottage valley’s deep.
The little lamb is on the green,
With woolly fleece so soft and clean,
Sleep, baby, sleep.

   
   

Chook, Chook
   
Chook, chook, chook, chook, chook,
Good morning Mrs. Hen.
How many chickens have you got?
Madam, I’ve got ten.

Four of them are yellow,
And four of them are brown.
And two of them are speckled red,
The nicest in the town.

   
   

Fuzzy Wuzzy, Creepy Crawly
   
Fuzzy wuzzy, creepy crawly,
Caterpillar funny,
You will be a butterfly,
When the days are sunny.

Winging, flinging, dancing, springing,
Butterfly so yellow,
You were once a caterpillar,
Wiggly, wiggly fellow.

   
Poem by Lillian Schulz
   
     

The Evening Is Coming
   
The evening is coming.
The sun sinks to rest.
The birds are all flying,
Straight home to their nests.

“Caw, caw,” says the crow,
As he flies overhead.
It’s time little children,
We’re going to bed.

Here comes the pony.
His work is all done.
Down through the meadow,
He takes a good run.

Up go his heels,
And down goes his head.
It’s time little children,
Were going to bed.

   
   

Kisses
   
Oh, here’s a leg for a stocking,
And here’s a foot for a shoe,
And he has a kiss for his daddy,
And two for his mommy, too!

   
     
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Lesson 40 – Poems And Rhymes

   
NEW WORDS: Dolly, February, February’s, Ives, Laura, Laura’s, November, September, St., Willie, Winkie, acts, anyone, billion, boiling, chirped, clangs, colder, custard, disappears, disobedient, dope, dwell, easily, excepting, fairy, fiery, firelight, gather, gliding, hath, kits, kneel, muscles, nightgown, rapping, ready, redbreast, scampers, seashore, seaweed, shadows, shells, shivery, slithers, soap’s, thinner, thirty, water’s, wells  
   
   

Good Neighbors
   
A little old woman,
And a little old mouse,
Live in the very same,
Little old house.

She rocks in a corner,
He scampers in the wall,
And they never, never get
In each other’s way, at all.

   
Poem by May Justus
   
     

Wee Willie Winkie
   
Wee Willie Winkie,
Runs through the town,
Upstairs and downstairs,
In his nightgown.

Rapping at the window,
Crying through the lock,
“Are the children in their beds?
Now it’s eight o’clock.”

   
   

My Dragon
   
I have a purple dragon,
With a long brass tail that clangs,
And anyone not nice to me,
Soon feels his fiery fangs.

So if you tell me I’m a dope,
Or call my muscles jelly,
You just might dwell a billion years,
Inside his boiling belly.

   
Poem by X. J. Kennedy
   
     

Look
   
Firelight and shadows,
Dancing on the wall.
Look at my shadow,
TEN FEET TALL!

   
Poem by Charlotte Zolotow
   
     

Shore
   
Play on the seashore,
And gather up shells,
Kneel in the damp sands,
Digging wells.

Run on the rocks,
Where the seaweed slips,
Watch the waves,
And the beautiful ships.

   
Poem by Mary Britton Miller
   
     

Robin Redbreast
   
Little Robin Redbreast,
Sat upon a tree.
Up went Kitty-Cat,
Down went he.

Down came Kitty-Cat,
Away Robin ran,
Says little Robin Redbreast,
“Catch me if you can!”

Little Robin Redbreast,
Jumped upon a spade,
Kitty-Cat jumped after him,
And then he was afraid.

Little Robin chirped and sang,
And what did Kitty say?
Kitty-Cat said, “Mew, mew, mew,”
And Robin flew away.

   
   

Something About Me
   
There’s something about me
That I’m knowing.
There’s something about me
That isn’t showing.
I’m growing!

   
   

Hide-And-Seek Shadow
   
I walked with my shadow,
I ran with my shadow,
I danced with my shadow,
I did.

Then a cloud came over,
And the sun went under,
And my shadow stopped playing,
And hid.

   
Poem by Margaret Hillert
   
     

Going To St. Ives
   
As I was going to St. Ives,
I met a man with seven wives.
Every wife had seven sacks,
Every sack had seven cats,
Every cat had seven kits.
Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,
How many were going to St. Ives?

   
   

Before The Bath
   
It’s cold, cold, cold,
And the water shines wet,
And the longer I wait,
The colder I get.

I can’t quite make
Myself hop in,
All shivery-cold,
In just my skin.

Yet the water’s warm,
In the tub, I know.
So, one, two, three,
And IN I go!

   
Poem by Corinna Marsh
   
     

The Butterfly
   
Up and down the air you float,
Like a little fairy boat.
I should like to sail the sky,
Gliding like a butterfly!

   
Poem by Clinton Scollard
  
    

My Sister Laura
   
My sister Laura’s
Bigger than me,
And lifts me up,
Quite easily.

I can’t lift her,
I’ve tried and tried.
She must have something,
Heavy inside.

  
Poem by Spike Milligan
   
    

Thirty Days Hath September
   
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
February has twenty-eight alone,
All the rest have thirty-one,
Excepting leap-year, that’s the time,
When February’s days are twenty-nine.

   
   

The Wish
   
Each birthday wish
I’ve ever made
Really does come true.

Each year I wish
I’ll grow some more,
And every year, I DO!

   
Poem by Ann Friday
    
    

Naughty Soap Song
   
Just when I’m ready to
Start on my ears,
That is the time that my
Soap disappears.

It jumps from my fingers, and
Slithers and slides,
Down to the end of the
Tub, where it hides.

And acts in a most
Disobedient way,
AND THAT’S WHY MY SOAP’S GROWING
THINNER EACH DAY.

   
Poem by Dorothy Aldis
   
     

Baby Dolly
   
Hush, baby, my dolly,
I pray you don’t cry,
And I’ll give you some bread,
And some milk, by-and-by.

Or perhaps you like custard,
Or, maybe, a tart,
Then to either you’re welcome,
With all my heart.

   
       
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Click on this link to move forward to Module B, Lessons 41 – 50
   


    

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