Sách tiếng Anh cho trẻ em Book 29 so much to learn

If only I could take one look And understand what’s in this book.. My mother says when I was small I’d try to walk and then I’d fall.. If instead I had written, “Are you a crow?” Now tha

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So Much

to Learn

So Much to Learn

A Reading A–Z Poetry Book

Word Count: 893

P O E T R Y

Written by Dina Anastasio Illustrated by Chris Baldwin

So Much

to Learn

Written by Dina Anastasio

Illustrated by Chris Baldwin

www.readinga-z.com

So Much to Learn

A Reading A–Z Poetry Book

© 2006 ProQuest Information and Learning Company Written by Dina Anastasio Illustrated by Chris Baldwin All rights reserved.

www.readinga-z.com

Table of Contents

I Don’t Get It 4

Question Marks??? 6

Blue and Yellow 8

New Words 10

Homework 12

History 14

3

I Don’t Get It

I don’t get it This is rough

I’ll never understand this stuff.

I’ve had enough of this today

I wish I could go out to play

What’s the answer? I don’t know

My brain is moving very slow

If only I could take one look And understand what’s in this book

My mother says when I was small I’d try to walk and then I’d fall

And later when I learned to ride I’d fall no matter how I tried

But I kept on Yes, it was rough

In time I understood that stuff

I guess it’s true, I’ll get it when

I try and try and try again

4

Question Marks???

I wrote a story about a boy and his pig The boy wasn’t small

The pig wasn’t big

I wrote a sentence about the pig making cheeps Instead of a snore or an oink as he sleeps Now a pig that makes cheeps

is a magical thing

Think of the questions that cheeping pigs bring

“Why do you cheep?”

the big boy might say

“Are you dreaming that you were a bird for one day?”

But that’s not the sentence

I decided to write

I kept thinking of what little pigs dream at night

So, this is the sentence

I made up and wrote

“Perhaps small pigs baah when they dream they’re a goat.”

I ended the sentence with a period dot.

I did not use a question mark

A question it was not

If instead I had written, “Are you a crow?”

Now that is a question,

even if he’d croaked “NO!”

These days I care more

about what’s at the end

Of each sentence or question

in the message I send

If I’m searching for answers,

to learn and grow wise,

I’d better use question marks,

or I’ll get no replies

7

Blue and Yellow

Today I learned how a color is made

I learned how to mix up a lovely green shade

I discovered that yellow when added to blue Turns into a pleasant, agreeable hue

At fi rst I was baffl ed by why I would choose

To add yellow paint to my small pots of blues But then I remembered that grasses and beans, And olives and turtles and hoses are green

8

I started by adding bits of yellow to blues.

I was not sure exactly how much

yellow to use

I was painting some grass

in a small sunny park,

But the green in my grass

looked unusually dark

So I painted some beans I painted a snake

I painted a fern by the side of a lake

Then I added more yellow

and thought of the sun

I stirred and I stirred

and when I was done,

The green in the pot wasn’t dark,

it was light

Then I painted my grass,

and the shade was just right

So I guess I have learned

it’s important and true

That green comes from yellow

that is mixed up with blue

And now when I think that learning’s a pain,

I remember those colors that lit up my brain

New Words

My new teacher says that in order to grow There are more and more words

that I’ll need to know

“Learn one word each day,”

is what he tells me

“Or learn several more, perhaps 5, perhaps 3.”

I said “Okay, I guess that I’ll try

But will you explain?

Will you please tell me why?

What is the purpose of learning new words? Will it help when I’m swimming

or speaking to birds?”

“Of course! There’s no doubt!”

said my odd little teacher

“Words mean a lot

when you speak to a creature

When describing a swim

to a bird you can say,

‘A luminous tarpon descended today

He brushed up my fi bula

and my tarsal bone too

Then he slithered away

without saying adieu.’

Or perhaps you would rather

just yawn, shrug, and say,

‘Today I went swimming in Barnegat Bay.’”

11

Homework

I did my homework yesterday

I fi nished it and then,

I gave it to my teacher

Now here it comes again

I see no need for homework

What good is it to me?

Will it help me sail the world When I’m twenty-three?

Wait! Perhaps I should rethink Those words I said before

Homework might just help me when I’m sailing toward the shore

I’ll have to understand the stars, And navigate the fog

I’ll have to fi gure out the miles, And write things in my log

So if I’m going to sail the world,

To wander and to roam, I’d better do my homework now,

Or I won’t make it home

12

When I’m feeling bored with my history book,

I think of the trip my great-grandmother took Her ship hit a storm She shivered and cried For more than a month she huddled inside

Then at last she arrived

She was just 10 years old

She was scared and alone

She was thirsty and cold

Some relatives met her

and carried her home

They gave her some food,

some clothes, and a comb

They lit a nice fi re

and taught her a song

And that’s when this girl knew

just where she belonged

She’s an old lady now, and she’s in that house still She tells me her stories and I listen until

It’s time to go back

to my history book, And read about trips other great-grandmothers took

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