The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Aldine Readers: A First Reader, by Frank E. Spaulding This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: The Aldine Readers: A First Reader Author: Frank E. Spaulding and Catherine T. Bryce Illustrator: Margaret Ely Webb Release Date: May 12, 2021 [eBook #65323] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 Produced by: Richard Tonsing, hekula03, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.) *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ALDINE READERS: A FIRST READER *** A FIRST READER THE ALDINE READERS A FIRST READER By Frank E. Spaulding Superintendent of Schools, Minneapolis, Minn. and Catherine T. Bryce Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Minneapolis, Minn. With Illustrations by Margaret Ely Webb NEW YORK NEWSON & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1906, by Newson and Company All rights reserved 1648–13 The authors and publishers desire to acknowledge their obligation to Mr. Nathaniel L. Berry, Supervisor of Drawing in the Public Schools of Newton, Massachusetts, for valuable assistance in planning and arranging the illustrations in this book. INTRODUCTION This First Reader continues the interesting exercises of the Aldine Primer—the rhymes and stories, the dramatizations and pictures—which make the child’s efforts to master the art of reading both delightful and surprisingly successful. The content is concrete, alive and full of action. The joys of happy childhood at play in the open—with the birds, the animals, the flowers, the wind, the snow and the rain— the joys of childhood’s imagination, are presented in the language of childhood and from the child’s point of view. The child finds here none of the drudgery—to him quite meaningless—so often associated with the disagreeable task of learning how to read; the child reads from the very first page—he has been reading all through the Primer—reads with delight and real understanding, reads the thoughts and feels the pleasures of childhood. Hence the not uncommon occurrence of a child’s suddenly discovering in surprise that he has learned how to read—that he can read—that he is reading—and that he likes to read! But there is no magic about the Aldine method, if it can be called a method. Like the marvellous modern achievements of applied science, its success depends upon the simple principle of understanding and utilizing, instead of ignoring and antagonizing, nature. The child’s nature furnishes the key, the sure guide to all the method there is in Aldine reading. The initial stock of about one hundred “sight words,” which the reading of the Primer has furnished, is increased gradually. At first most of the new words are easily acquired, as were those of the Primer, through the memorizing of simple and interesting rhymes. Such rhymes occur on pages 3, 6, 11, 15, 17, 25, 28, 33, 37, 47, 55, 75. But for the development of the power and the habit of independent mastery of new words by the child reliance is placed on the exercises in phonics, which should be systematic and constant throughout the book. Just what these exercises are and just how they are to be carried out to make them most effective are matters fully explained in the Teacher’s Manual, “Learning to Read.” No formidable mechanism is involved in the teaching of phonics. The plan is an entirely simple and natural one. The pupil is shown how and encouraged from the outset to do quickly, directly and intelligently what he otherwise learns slowly, indirectly and unconsciously. He is taught to observe, to analyze and to compare words; he is taught to apply constantly his growing knowledge of sounds and of letters used to represent sounds. These exercises are scarcely less interesting to the child than are the rhymes, stories and dramatizing, for the child understands what he is doing and why he is doing it, and he feels the joy of increasing mastery. So rapid and sure is the child’s progress and growth in independent power that he reads at sight and reads well any interesting Primer long before he has completed this First Reader. When this book is completed he can read any properly graded First Reader, in fact almost anything that he can understand, and he can read it absolutely at sight with little hesitation and read it with intelligent expression. Aldine Reading, as presented in this and in the other books of the Aldine Series, is vastly more important than any mere method or device for acquiring mastery of the mechanics of reading—it does lead to that mastery speedily; it is all-round, rich, sound education for the primary child; and withal it is a joy to child and teacher, as all primary education ought to be. v vi CONTENTS PAGE With the Birds 1 Out of Doors 23 The Wind 26 The Leaves 28 The Birds and the Leaves 30 The Snow 34 Little Birdie 38 Feeding the Squirrels 40 The Squirrels 43 In Summer Time 45 Summer is Coming 47 Pussy Willows 48 The Pussies 50 Little Violet 52 Mother’s Song 56 Baby 58 Baby Asleep 62 The New Kite 66 Tom and the Wind 68 The Song of the Wind 72 With Flower and Star 73 The Rose 75 The Beautiful Garden 77 The Garden in Winter 80 Rose, Daisy, and Lily 82 The Spring Time 85 Tom and the Birds 86 The Star 88 vii viii The Dandelion’s Friends 91 At Christmas-Tide 95 Who Is It? 97 Santa Claus 98 Who is Santa Claus? 100 The Night Before Christmas 102 The Doll and the Sled 106 Christmas Morning 111 Playing in the Snow 115 In Garden and Meadow 119 The Little Plant 121 Be Glad 122 The Fairy Butterfly 123 The Butterfly in the Garden 125 The Little Fairy 127 The White Lily 131 The Caterpillar 134 The Dandelion 138 The Bee 140 The Busy Bee 142 Why the Clover is Sweet 145 Vocabulary 147 With·The·Birds Fly, little birds, to the tall tree. Fly to your nest and little birds three. tall three Fly, little birds. Fly to your nest. Fly to the tall tree, little birds. Fly to your little birds. Fly to your three little birds. Your little birds fly. Your little birds fly to the tall tree. Your little birds fly to the nest. Little birds, fly to your nest. Fly to the tall tree. Fly to your three little birds. Fly to your nest and three little birds. Fly, little birds, To the place you love best, To the tall tree And your dear little nest. place love (n est) dear b est Fly, little birds. Fly to the tall tree. Fly to the place you love best. Fly to your dear little nest. You love the tall tree, little birds. You love your dear little nest. You love your three little birds best. Your little birds fly to the tall tree. Your little birds fly to the nest. Your little birds love the tall tree. Your little birds love the nest. Your dear little birds love you best. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 The birds are flying. They are flying to the tall tree. They are flying to the place they love. Where are they flying? They are flying to the dear little nest. They are flying to three little birds. They are flying to the birds in the nest. They love the tree and the nest. They love the little birds best. Fly, little birds. Fly to the tall tree. Fly to the place you love best. Fly to your dear little nest. Your nest is in the tall tree. Your little birds are in the nest. Fly to your nest. Fly to your dear little birds. Your little birds love the tree. Your little birds love the nest. They love the nest in the tall tree. They love you best. You love your nest. You love your little birds best. Robin, Robin Redbreast, Singing on the bough, Come and get your breakfast, I will feed you now. bough Rob in will get Red breast break fast feed Where are you, Robin Redbreast? Come, Robin, come and get your breakfast. I will feed you, Robin. I will feed you now. I see you, Robin, in the tree. You are flying to the tall bough. You are singing to your little birds. They are in the nest in the tall tree. The nest is on the bough. You love your nest in the tall tree. Fly to your dear little nest. Robin Redbreast is singing on the bough. Where is Robin’s nest? It is in the tall tree. Robin’s nest is on the bough. He is singing to the little birds. The little birds are in the nest. Robin wants breakfast. He wants breakfast for the little birds. Good Robin Redbreast! 9 10 11 12 13 too here Come, Robin Redbreast, come to me. I want to feed you. Come, here is your breakfast. Now you can feed your little birds. I want to feed the little birds, too. There is a nest in the old oak tree, Safe and high, Safe and high. There are three tiny eggs blue as blue can be, Like the sky, Like the sky. as (fl y) like eggs tiny sk y (c old) high oak old safe A nest is in the old oak tree. It is a Robin’s nest. The nest is safe on a high bough. Three tiny eggs are in the nest. The eggs are as blue as blue can be. They are like the sky. There are three baby birds in the tiny nest, Up so high, Up so high, And the wind rocks the bough where they safely rest, Rock-a-bye, Rock-a-bye. ba by (n est) (g o) rock s safe ly r est s o Rock-a-bye (bird) soon made bird ies but tree-top 14 15 16 17 18 Robin made a nest in the oak tree. There it is high up on the bough. Three tiny eggs are in the nest. They are as blue as blue can be. They are as blue as the sky. Soon there will be three baby birds in the tiny nest. The wind will rock the bough. But the birds will be safe in the nest. And they will like the wind to rock the bough. The old birds will sing. They will sing to the little birds. They will sing,“Rock-a-bye, rock-a-bye. Rock-a-bye, birdies, on the tree-top.” 19 20 21 (sn ow) flowers then gr ow not THE OLD OAK TREE There is the old oak tree. See the birds flying to the nest. The nest is in the tree. Little blue flowers grow under it. The tree loves birds and flowers. And they love the old oak tree. The old oak rocks the birds in the nest. The nest is on a high bough. The wind blows the bough. But the little birds rest there safely. The old birds fly in to the nest. They feed the little birds. Then they fly to the tree-top. There they sing and sing. “We love you! We love you!” The little birds can not fly; they can not sing. So they say, “Peep! peep! We love! we love!” The little flowers look up to the old tree. They can not fly; they can not sing. But they, too, love the old oak tree. 22 Out·of·Doors Whichever way the wind doth blow Some heart is glad to have it so. Then blow it east or blow it west, The wind that blows—that wind is best. doth have (at) which ever (s ay) th at heart w ay east 23 24 25 26 cra dle (n ow) down (t all) breaks h ow their f all THE WIND How the wind blows! The tall trees rock in the wind. See the boughs sway up and down. Some little birds are in their nest. The nest is on a high bough. They are glad to have the wind blow. Their hearts are glad. They like the west wind best. It rocks them in their nest. They like that. They like to rock in the tree-top. Sing to the dear little birds. Sing a song to the birds in the nest. “Rock-a-bye, birdies, on the tree-top. When the wind blows, the cradle will rock. When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall, And down will come rock-a-bye, birdies and all.” The nest is the little birds’ cradle. It is on a bough in the tree-top. It rocks when the wind blows. When the bough breaks it falls. It falls down, down, away down! It falls to the ground. And down fall birdies and all. 27 28