How Long?Written by Dina Anastasio Illustrated by Cende Hill How Long?. A Reading A–Z Poetry Book © 2006 ProQuest Information and Learning Company Written by Dina Anastasio Illustrated b
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How Long?
Written by Dina Anastasio • Illustrated by Cende Hill
How Long?
A Reading A–Z Poetry Book
Word Count: 616
P O E T R Y
Trang 2How Long?
Written by Dina Anastasio
Illustrated by Cende Hill
How Long?
A Reading A–Z Poetry Book
© 2006 ProQuest Information and Learning Company Written by Dina Anastasio Illustrated by Cende Hill All rights reserved.
Photo Credits:
Back cover, 10 (top two), 11 (top two): © ArtToday; page 7: © Nick Clements/ Getty Images; pages 10 (clock), 11 (clock): © Hemera Technologies; page 12:
© ProQuest Information and Learning Company
Trang 3Table of Contents
How Many Sides? 4
How Long? 5
Is It Time Yet? 6
Another Zero 8
What Is an Hour? 10
What Is a Minute? 11
What Is a Second? 12
3
How Many Sides?
Think of a square
There are 4 equal sides.
When you think of a triangle,
Let 3 sides be your guide.
A rectangle has 2 short sides And 2 long.
But it’s easy to picture All those other shapes wrong
A pentagon has 5 sides
An octagon 8.
A hexagon has 6 sides
Careful! Keep them straight But there’s one easy shape That you’ll always remember
A circle goes round Like December to December
4
Trang 4How Long?
It must take an inchworm
quite a long time to go,
For an inchworm is short
It’s a slowpoke you know
An inchworm’s 1 inch,
not 8, 6, or 3.
But working together
12 inchworms can be
As long as a foot
That’s 12 inches in all.
A foot is 12 inches
whether spread out or tall
So if 12 inch-long inchworms
stretched out side by side,
Would they be a foot?
That’s for you to decide
Is It Time Yet?
I think I’d better watch my watch
The race begins at 9.
The big hand ticks past 5 and 6
I walk up to the line
The little hand is creeping
It’s moving way too slow
I wait for it to reach the 9.
At 9 it’s “Ready? GO!”
The big hand ticks past 7 now.
It moves past 8, 9, 10.
10 minutes left till 9 o’clock.
I watch my watch again
The little hand creeps toward the 9.
The big hand’s on 11.
The other runners join me now
I count them There are 7.
The man shouts, “Are you ready?”
My watch goes tick, tick, tock
The man shouts, “GO!” The race begins
Trang 5Another Zero
When I’m in line and have to wait,
I think of numbers standing straight Each number is my special friend They form a line from start to end
First number 1 stands on her own Then 0 comes 1’s not alone.
Together they make number 10.
And then a 0 comes again.
The line is longer, 100 now.
Here comes another 0 Wow!
Look! Now 1000 form the line.
Each one says she’s a friend of mine
8
Trang 6What Is an Hour?
What is an Hour?
It’s a very long bath
It’s a rather long stroll down a rather long path
It’s two half-hour shows,
or a long lazy meal
It’s 360 quick barks
from a loud hungry seal
It takes one full hour,
no less and no more, For the small hand
to go from the 3 to the 4.
That’s because all small hands move slowly round clocks
And while yours is moving you can build with your blocks
If you try not to hurry and create a huge tower,
It will probably take
60 minutes, or one hour
Trang 7What Is a Minute?
What is a minute?
It’s the time it will take
To slather blue frosting
on a chocolate cupcake
It’s a short little message,
or a handshake or two
It takes just a minute
to buckle your shoe
It’s 60 short seconds
It’s a nice gentle hug
It’s how long to count spots
on a 60-spot bug.
It’s the length of an ad
in your favorite show,
And the time it will take
to spell MUSTARD real slow
It takes one full minute
for the big hand to click
Around all the numbers
That’s 60 quick ticks
12
What Is a Second?
What is a second? It’s a wink or a click,
A snap of your fi ngers, a tock or a tick
It takes one second to jump up high
It takes one second to slap your thigh
In one split second you can slam the door, Turn off the light or snore one snore
You can blink 1 blink, or clap 1 clap You can count to 1, or tap 1 tap.
clap
snap