Educational Resources - An Elementary Reader

Sam the Cat Has Fun

by Sally Jennings
Sam is a cat,
about two years old.
Sam has short fur.
Sam is mostly black,
but he has white paws and white ears.
Sam also has a white nose,
and a white tip on his tail.
Because Sam's nose fur is white,
his nose is pink.
He is a very nice looking cat.

It is early one summer day,
and Sam sits on his front doorstep.
Sam is watching for something fun to do.
Sam watches for other cats to chase,
but no cats go by.
He watches for butterflies to chase,
but no butterflies go by.
He watches for a mouse to chase,
but no mice go by.
Sam sits and waits for something fun.

A car goes by on the road.
Sam knows cars can hurt cats,
so Sam sits still.
A mother goes by,
with a crying baby in her arms.
Sam doesn't like babies,
so Sam sits still.

A boy runs by,
pulling a small toy airplane on a string.
The airplane bumps on the sidewalk,
bumps on the step next to Sam,
and bumps on the grass.
The airplane looks like fun to Sam,
so Sam runs after the airplane.

Sam jumps up,
clapping his paws together
to try to catch the plane.
No luck.
Sam jumps forward,
just missing the end of the plane.
No luck.
The boy sees Sam playing with the plane,
so he runs in circles around Sam.
The boy watches Sam play,
and laughs.

Sam jumps up high,
and claws the end of the plane.
Sam twists and twirls,
chasing the plane.
Sam leaps and races,
running faster and faster.
Sam cannot catch the plane.
The boy laughs and laughs.
The boy laughs so hard,
he sits down on the grass.

Guess what?
When the boy sits down,
he stops pulling the string.
The plane lands on the grass.

Sam gets low in the grass
and creeps up near the plane.
Suddenly, Sam jumps on top of the plane.
Zoom!
He grabs it in his mouth,
and tosses it in the air.
Zip!
He swats it with his front paws.
Thud! Thud!
He kicks it with his back paws.
Thud! Thud!
Finally, he lays down,
with the plane between his front paws,
and chews on the string.
Crunch!

The boy comes over and sits next to Sam.
He pets Sam on the back.
He scratches his ears.
Sam licks his hand.

Sam rolls over on his back,
and begs for the boy to pet his stomach.
Sam smiles at the boy,
and the boy smiles back.
Sam purrs.
It is still early in the morning,
but Sam is already having a very fun day.



Educational Resources - An Elementary Reader
The Princess of Merrylandia
by Sally Jennings
Once upon a time,
long, long, ago,
in the country of Merrylandia,
there lived a princess.
The princess was named Bloombia.
Princess Bloombia did not like her name.
Bloombia wanted to be named
Ann Marie Bonnie Sue,
not Bloombia.
In fact, the last name on earth she wanted
was Bloombia.

Bloombia's father, King Merrill,
and Bloombia's mother, Queen Merribeth,
liked the name Bloombia.
"We named you Bloombia," they said,
"and Bloombia is what you will be called."
Bloombia was unhappy.

Bloombia felt like Ann Marie Bonnie Sue all over.
She looked at her face in the mirror.
Her face looked to her like a girl named Ann,
not a girl named Bloombia.

She looked at her ears.
Her ears were hard to see in one mirror,
so she used two.
Her ears looked to her like a girl named Marie,
not a girl named Bloombia.

She looked at her knees.
They looked to her like a girl named Bonnie,
not a girl named Bloombia.

She looked down at her toes.
They looked to her like a girl named Sue,
not a girl named Bloombia.

From her head to her toes,
Bloombia felt like Ann Marie Bonnie Sue.
What could she do?

She thought about her problem
when she was eating her breakfast porridge.
She looked at herself in her spoon
and saw Ann Marie Bonnie Sue.

She thought about her problem
when she played on the castle bridge
throwing stones into the moat.
She looked at herself in the water
and saw Ann Marie Bonnie Sue.

She thought about her problem
when she played hide and seek
in the hall of mirrors.
She looked at herself in the mirror walls
and saw Ann Marie Bonnie Sue.

What could she do?
What could she do,
about not being named
Ann Marie Bonnie Sue?

She asked everyone she knew
to call her Ann Marie Bonnie Sue.

"I can't, Bloombia,"
said her best friend Megan.
"My mom says your parents,
the King and Queen,
would be angry."

"I can't, Bloombia,"
said the baker in the castle kitchen,
"I want to keep this job,
not get fired."

"I can't, Bloombia,"
said her sewing teacher,
"I have to call you what you are named,
it's the law here in Merrylandia.
His Royal Highness,
your Daddy, the King,
said so."

When Bloombia asked her nanny to call her
Ann Marie Bonnie Sue,
her nanny said "No, that will never do.
You're named Bloombia,
NOT Ann Marie Bonnie Sue."

Poor Bloombia
What could she do?
What could she do
about not being named
Ann Marie Bonnie Sue?

One day, her father, King Merrill,
announced a talent contest.
Anyone in the whole kingdom could enter the contest.
Many prizes would be given out,
to many winners.

Bloombia made a plan.
She practiced singing a song she wrote.
She practiced dancing a dance she made up.
She made a big sign.

On the day of the contest,
Bloombia dressed all in blue.
She tied a ribbon in her hair.
It was blue.

She wore a long gown, with ruffles.
It was blue.

She wore shiny shoes, with bows.
They were blue.

She had a hat, a purse, and a shawl.
All of them were blue.

When it was Bloombia's turn
to perform, she danced her dance.
She sang her song.
She held up her sign.

The song she was singing was
"Please, oh please, call me
Ann Marie Bonnie Sue.
Please, oh please, won't you?"

The dance she was dancing
was the Bloombia Blues.
See, that's why she dressed in blue.

The sign she held up was
"Cheer for Ann Marie Bonnie Sue".

During the song,
people sang along,
but King Merrill frowned.

When she danced,
they clapped,
but Queen Merribeth watched quietly.

When she held her sign up,
the people cheered,
and the King and Queen whispered to each other.

Then the King said,
"Bloombia, I can see you have worked very hard
to make it clear
you want to be called Ann Marie Bonnie Sue."
"Let me ask the people," the King said.

"Cheer for what you want to call her,"
announced the King.
"Should she be Bloombia?"
The people were silent.

"Or Ann Marie Bonnie Sue?"
The people cheered loudly.

So the King announced
"Very well, my daughter,
from now on, you will not be Bloombia,
you will be Ann Marie Bonnie Sue."

The crowd cheered and cheered.
"We love you,
King Merrill."

"We love you,
Queen Merribeth."

"We love you,
Yes, indeed we really do,
Princess Ann Marie Bonnie Sue!"

As for the Princess of Merrylandia,
She was so happy she didn't know what to do,
now she was Princess Ann Marie Bonnie Sue!



Educational Resources - An Elementary Reader
A Happy Family Birthday
by Sally Jennings
Once there was a husband and a wife
who were wishing for children.
One day their wishes came true,
and their first child, a baby girl,
was born.
They loved her dearly
and named her Louise.
The next year they had another baby,
and named her Janessa.
Before three more years passed,
they had three more daughters,
and named them Kathleen, Lori, and Lisa.
Their birthdays were all in January,
but on different days.

When Lisa had her first birthday,
their mother, who was named Julie,
baked five birthday cakes
and planned five birthday parties that January.
By the end of January
she was very tired of birthday parties.
But they held the birthday parties every
year for the next four years anyway.
Her husband, who was named Roger,
had to help with the five birthday parties every year.
Although he loved his children dearly,
he too was very tired of birthday parties
and children by the end of January every year.

So the next January,
after five years of
five January birthday parties,
when the girls were to be
ages six, seven, eight, nine, and ten,
Julie and Roger decided
to have one birthday party
with one birthday cake
for all their daughters.

Each of their daughters was allowed
to invite five of her friends
to the big birthday party.
Can you count how many children would be at the big party?
Well, there would be five birthday girls,
each with five friends there.
Six times five is 30 children at the party.
It would be a loud, noisy, fun party.

Julie hoped she could bake
just one big cake for the five girls,
but they each wanted a different kind of cake,
and a different color icing.
Of course they did, wouldn't you?

Julie asked her oldest daughter, Louise,
who would be ten years old,
and loved candy,
what kind of cake and icing she wanted.
Louise said "Chocolate cake, red icing!"

She asked her second daughter, Janessa,
who would be nine years old,
and loved carrots,
what kind of cake and icing she wanted.
Janessa said "Carrot cake, orange icing!"

She asked her third daughter, Kathleen,
who would be eight years old,
and was very careful about keeping things clean,
what kind of cake and icing she wanted.
Kathleen said "White cake, yellow icing!"

She asked her fourth daughter, Lori,
who would be seven years old,
and was an expert about jungles,
what kind of cake and icing she wanted.
Lori said "Banana cake, green icing!"

Last, she asked her youngest daughter, Lisa,
who would be six years old,
what kind of cake and icing she wanted.
Lisa took her time answering.
She was always last,
and determined to be different about everything.
"It looks like everybody else got the good kinds,
she complained. I know, I know," she shouted,
"what about peanut butter cake and purple icing!"

Julie just sighed. She still had to make five cakes,
and five different colors of icing.
"Okay," she said, "I'll bake five cakes,
but I'm making one big cake out of all of them,
because we are one big happy family."

So Julie made five cakes
and iced them as one big cake.
Can you guess what Julie did with the icing?
She made a rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, purple,
oops! she still needed blue,
so she put on blue candy sprinkles,
and blue birthday candles.
I'll bet you could draw a picture of that cake, couldn't you?

Can you add up how many birthday candles Julie needed?
Well, she needed 10 for Louise,
9 for Janessa,
8 for Kathleen,
7 for Lori
and 6 for Lisa.
So Julie bought four packages of ten candles each,
and had just enough candles without any left over.
That's a total of 40 blue birthday candles.

At the party, after all the fun, games, and presents,
everybody sat down at the table where the cake was.
Each birthday girl sat in front of her color icing,
Louise red,
Janessa orange,
Kathleen yellow,
Lori green,
and Lisa purple.
Their dad lit the blue birthday candles.

Then their mom and dad and all their friends sang Happy Birthday,
while Louise blew out ten candles. Puff!
Janessa blew out nine candles. Poof!
Kathleen blew out eight candles Whuff!
Lori blew out seven candles Whoof!
And Lisa, who was last,
and always wanted to be different,
blew out six candles Kawhifferchiffer!

Then all their friends
and their mother and father,
and each of the girls themselves
held up their fingers for the birthday numbers,
and shouted
(What? I'll bet you could do this part, couldn't you?)
"Happy birthday Louise, TEN!
Happy birthday Janessa, NINE!
Happy birthday Kathleen, EIGHT!
Happy birthday Lori, SEVEN!
And happy birthday Lisa, SIX!"

Then they ate the birthday cake,
and every kind of cake and icing was very, very delicious.


Educational Resources - An Elementary Reader
The Bad Hair Day Contest
by Sally Jennings
Angela stood in front of the bathroom mirror and scowled.
Today was the Bad Hair Day contest held twice a year at her school.
There would be a winner picked in each class for the worst hairdo, as
there always was.
She was in grade two, and had never won the Bad Hair Day contest yet.
She picked up a strand of her hair and dropped it. It just wasn't fair.
She crossed her arms and glared at herself in the mirror.
Two contests in kindergarten, two in grade one, one last fall in grade
two, and she had not won yet. Bethany, Lisa, Rachel, Susannah, and
Stephanie had already won. She really, really wanted to win this time.
Angela's mother, Tiffany, called from downstairs, "It's time to go, come
on. We don't want to be late for school!"
Angela stuck two more clips in her long, dark hair. One was an orange
clip because her skirt was orange. One was a pink clip because her skirt
was pink.
She also had fifteen other clips of all colors already in her hair.
"I'm coming, Mom," she yelled, "I just want to put in three more clips,
then I'm done."
She heard her mother's quick footsteps on the steps. Oh no. She closed
and locked the bathroom door quickly.
"Hey, come on, no fair," her mother complained, rattling the door handle.
"Open up. I can help you so we get finished sooner. Let's not be late."
Angela thought for a minute, then opened the door. "Is this good
enough, will I win, Mom?" she asked.
Her mother looked carefully at all the clips. "Well, I don't know. Let's see,
hmmm... it might not be different enough. What about adding a big
bow?"
She went into her bedroom and came back with white tissue paper with
a rainbow of spots, all different sizes. She quickly made a huge bow,
much bigger than Angela's head, from the tissue paper.
Then Tiffany began to undo all the clips Angela already had in her hair.
"Stop it," yelled Angela, batting her mother's hands away. "I want those
there. Just put the bow over everything else."
She thought to herself that she could take the bow out if she wanted,
once she got in the school building and her mother was out of sight.
Tiffany put the clips back in, and used six more to fix the bow firmly on
Angela's head, then she grabbed her camera and quickly took a picture,
while Angela fussed. "You'll like seeing the picture when you are all
grown up. You can show your own kids someday, I hope."
Then her mother said "Just don't expect to win, probably someone else
will." She didn't want to get Angela's hopes up and then have her very
disappointed.
"No Mom," said Angela firmly, "this time I'm going to win."
"We'll see," said her mother quietly "wouldn't it be nice if you could think
of some other girl winning, someone who really, really needs to? Maybe
like, I don't know..."
Angela stopped to think. "Karly," she said slowly, "Karly needs to win
because her baby brother has been so sick for so long. She's been so
upset."
Then they were down the steps, out the door, down the street and at the
school in a flash. Tiffany said goodbye to her, kissed her on the face,
and turned to walk home. Angela opened the school door and went in
slowly.
What if no one liked her bow and clips? What if they all laughed at her
and were mean? Her face turned a little red, and she felt like she was
almost going to cry.
She looked at the school office window quietly. Oh no, Miss Sherman,
the secretary, was there, standing with her back to the window.
Then she stared. Miss Sherman had teeny colored bows all over her
head, and each one had a teeny metal hand bobbing up from it. "Miss
Sherman," Angela stuttered, "I r-r-r-r-eally l-l-l-like your hair. It's so, it's
so, it's so cool."
Miss Sherman turned and gasped, a delighted smile spread all over her
face."Why Angela, I just absolutely love your hair. That's the biggest,
brightest bow I've ever seen. Your hair is much better than mine."
Angela smiled.
Two teachers standing in the office, one with green hair, one with purple
spiked hair, turned around and whistled and clapped. "Neato," one said.
Angela smiled wider, and turning sideways, did a little pose with her
hands on her waist just so, so they could see the back of the bow, too.
Then she walked quickly down the hall and lined up to go to the
classroom to start the day. In the lineup, lots of the kids admired
Angela's hair.
Even Karly, who hadn't won a Bad Hair Day contest yet either, and who
had metallic pipe cleaners braided into her long black hair, said Angela
had a better hairdo. "You'll win, just you wait and see," she said.
"No, I hope you win," said Angela happily, and she really meant it. Karly
deserved to win.
When they all were at assembly in the gym, the winners were
announced, starting with the highest divisions first, then the primary
divisions. She couldn't bear to look up when they got to grade three.
Then she fiddled with her shoelaces until they got to her Grade Two
division.
They announced a tie in her division, and the first name was Karly. She
was so happy for her, she yelled loudly with everyone else. She was so
excited by Karly's win, that when she heard the words "The other Grade
Two Division B winner in the tie is Angela Star," she needed three pokes
in the ribs from Stephanie before she believed what she heard.
She and Karly had tied for first place!
When her mother came to get her after school, she could hardly wait to
tell her, "Mom, guess what?" she shouted. "Karly and I both won the Bad
Hair Day contest, we really, really won! And Karly's brother's coming
home from the hospital tomorrow, and he's going to be okay!"
Her mother said, "Karly's brother is okay? How wonderful. And you and
Karly both won? You did, you both really, really won?" and hugged her
tightly. "I'm so glad about her brother, and I'm so glad you finally won.
Karly must be very happy. Was it the bow, or the clips or both that made
you win?"
"No, no, Mom, it wasn't that at all, we both tried really hard to have good
stuff in our hair," said Angela, "but it happened because I wanted Karly
to win, and she wanted me to win."
And her mother just patted Angela's bow, gave her a big kiss, and said
quietly, "Well, well, well."


Educational Resources - A Read-to-me Story for Children
The Polkadot Town Festival and Parade
by Sally Jennings
Far, far away, in a country beyond the yellow cheese moon,
to the north of the Coconut and Mango Plains,
and to the south of the Peach and Apricot Mountains,
tucked away under the cherry freezy trees,
where the vanilla bean breezes blow soft and sweet on summer
evenings,
there is a place called Polkadot Town.

You can find it on a map,
if you have a really good polkadot place map,
and if you know just where to look in amongst the polkadots.

Everything in Polkadot Town is polkadotty.

The cinnamon stick buildings have icing sugar polkadots,
The licorice streets have funny bunny yellow polkadots,
and the chocolate pudding dirt has marshmallow polkadots.

The watermelon dogs have purple grape polkadots,
The ice cream cows have chocolate milk polkadots,
and the shortbread cats have red and white candycane polkadots.

Even the people are polkadotted.
The men have beards and moustaches polkadotted with banana moons,
The women have fingernails and toenails polkadotted with tangerine
suns,
and every last one of the children
has a face polkadotted with the biggest and brightest honey stars.

And when they wear clothes, which is almost always,
and very often and everywhere,
they wear exclusively and absolutely
(you guessed it) polkadotted clothes.

Polkadots are thought to be beautiful, you see,
so the more you have, the more beautiful you are.

Because polkadots are so prized,
once a year everyone in town marches around,
in all their best polkadotty fancy clothes and hats and scarves,
counting up beautiful polkadots wherever they find them.
They call this the Polkadot Town Festival and Parade.

Now all the parents know how many honey star polkadots each of their
children has
and every child is given at the age of seven,
a different first name telling something about the number of their
polkadot stars.
See, it takes a while for all the honey stars to show up on a child's face.
They don't appear all at once when the baby is born.
The child becomes polkadotty little by little, but is mostly all done by age
seven.
Then the child is given the honor of a grown-up polkadotty first name.

The Has-A-Whole-Lot family had just done counting
their only and always daughter's honey star polkadots
the day before the festival and parade.

They wanted to give their daughter
her always and forever first name at the ceremony the next day,
but were having trouble deciding on a good name for such a beautiful
girl
who had no less than twelve honey stars polkadotted all over her face.
Should they call her 'Pretty-Dozen', or '12-Magic-Minis',
or 'Milky-Way-Dreams', or 'Kisses-and-Wishes'?

Since she was all of seven, and considered herself nearly grown up, but
moreso,
her daddy, who was named So-Very-Many,
and her mommy, who was named Stars-Out-Tonight,
asked her to choose one of the four names.
They felt this was better than hearing about
what a bad name they had given her for the rest of their born days.
Did I mention she was a strong-willed girl?

She wrote out the four names,
eeny-meeny-miney'd and moe'd over them,
and her finger landed on 'Pretty-Dozen'.
'No, absolutely not,' she told them.
(See, I told you she was strong-willed.)
'Why?' they asked.
'Well, Pretty-Dozen and 12-Magic-Minis are nice names,' she said,
'but what if I have friends with thirteen stars?'
'What will I do then, if I have a name that tells everyone I have only
twelve?'

She petted her shortbread cat, Sweet-Tooth and scratched his
candycane spots
and thought. A grown-up polkadotty name was an awesome decision.

Should it be Milky-Way-Dreams, or Kisses-and-Wishes?
She pictured Milky-Way-Dreams as a dark chocolate horse under the
stars,
racing smoothly to a finish line.
Kisses-and-Wishes was like a handsome prince riding from the faraway
hills
and scooping her up in his arms, and carrying her away forever.
It took her breath away.

'I would like to be called 'Kisses-and-Wishes, please,' she whispered.
She didn't tell them why, because they didn't like it when she acted too
grown-up.

In fact, she would tell you if she were here,
that her parents got really upset when she was too romantic.
'Fluff and stuff,' said her dad, who was a scientific type.
And her mom said 'If only you knew.'
She hadn't figured out what that meant yet, and her mother would never
explain.

Anyway, Kisses-and-Wishes it was to be, and as she fell asleep,
she tried to think of what to wear to the Polkadot Town Festival and
Parade,
which was to be the very next day.

The next morning, she woke up smelling warm fruit,
which was what happened when the Apricot and Peach mountains
heated up in the morning sun. The espresso clouds you see, were just
clearing.
After she had breakfast, picked straight off the cherry freezy trees in her
back yard,
she dressed in her best polkadotty clothes.

She wanted to be a rainbow of polkadots,
since she was to be named Kisses-and-Wishes
and wishing was what she did if she saw a rainbow.


First, she put on black polkadot underwear and tights with red polkadots.
Next, came a frilly orange dress with yellow and green polkadots.
On top of this, she pulled a blue shawl with indigo polkadots over her
shoulders.
Then she put on her best violet hat with gold polkadot peacock feathers,
and sparkly violet shoes with gold polkadot bows.


She ran out of her bedroom,
hopscotched down the hall, hitting only polkadots on the floor,
her peacock feather bobbing wildly,
and grabbed her all-grown-up looking violet purse with gold polkadots.
She took a gold and pink polkadotted lip gloss from her purse,
rushed past her mommy to look in the bathroom mirror to put on the
gloss,
and looked long and hard at the grown-up girl she saw.

'Momma,' she whispered, 'am I pretty?
Even though I have only twelve honey stars and other girls have more?'

'Yes,' said her mommy, who wasn't really paying close attention
since she was still getting ready herself.
'Come on, we don't want to be late for the polkadot count,
or the naming ceremony,' said her mother.

So the Has-A-Whole-Lot family spent an enjoyable morning
counting polkadots high and low all over town.
They counted about ten thousand polkadots, just the three of them,
and added them to the kazillions of polkadots mentioned by place and
kind
on the counting board at the Polkadot Town Square.

Then all the children, all eight of them,
who were to get their always and forever names lined up,
in front of the Mayor and her council.
Little Miss Has-A-Whole-Lot was a little scared, but she was determined
to be brave.

'My, my,' beamed the Mayor, who was also a mommy,
'what a fine bunch of honey-starred children we have here today.
And, what a lovely bunch of starry names.'

And then the Mayor gave them their names, one by one, first the boys,
and they were Star-Invader, Galactic-Wizard, Glowing-Universe, and
Prize-of-Aliens.
'Such good names for boys,' the Mayor said slowly.
Then she named the girls, saying something about each name as she
spoke it,
and the girls were Dream-Heavens, Beyond-Starlight, and Shooting-
Star-Delight.

Then to Miss Has-A-Whole-Lot, who was last and was trembling a little,
she said
'My, my, is this your name, my dear?
What a beautiful name for your honey stars, Kisses-And-Wishes.
Why it reminds me, it reminds me, lets see now...' and she paused,
'of a handsome prince riding from the faraway hills
and scooping a lady up in his arms, and carrying her away forever.
It takes my breath away, it does. So very, very romantic.'

Kisses-And-Wishes just beamed up at her, and her mother who was
beside her,
said to her 'Yes, you are our only and always daughter, we have only
one,
and from today you will be called by your always and forever name,
our most beautiful daughter.
You will be forever in our hearts, Kisses-And-Wishes.'
And then she kissed her, right on her honey-starred face,
and gave her a great big hug.

And the Polkadot Town Parade Marching Band started playing,
well, can you guess?

The Lemonade and Chocolate Cream Cheese Pie Polka.