Ages 8-9

9. Pitter, pitter, pitter pat.

Pitter, pitter, pitter pat.

Chase the cat, Chase the cat.

10. ‘Run out in the rain – into Mrs Prune’s Schoolhouse. See the grandfather clock…’

Ding, Dong, Ding

Tick-tock Tick-tock

Time is passing in motion.

Morning, noon and midnight chime,

Wind the clock and tell the time.

Hours and hours are left behind

As the Tick-tocks

Tick-tock, Tick-tock

Time is passing in motion.

Ding, Dong, Ding.

11. ‘School is Out’

Hip Hip Hoorah!

12. Mo was gazing up at the evening sky, entranced with the play of wind, and clouds and stars. His 25 sheep were peacefully keeping in the hollow below the ridge. He hardly even noticed how darkened the sky, and gusty the wind had become; when the storm was upon him.

‘Loudly blew the bitter blast

Hail and rain were falling fast

Bank and bushes bleak and bare

Chilling bit the fighting air!’

– From ‘Journey Through Time in Verse and Rhyme – Poems collected by Heather Thomas’

The torrents of bitter weather forced Mo to tend to his sheep. Then the storm flashed by but left the night sky still over clouded and low. But where, where was all the fold? And Mo began to seek and saw that:

‘Rippling and rustling, restless the rill

Rattled and clattered a-down a steep hill.

Rolling and rising o’er ridges of rock,

It frightened and scattered his frisky sheep flock!’

Oh, no! The sheep had scattered in all directions, all over the land “U”. In great alarm he called to the moon on the other side of the hill. He knew it was due to grace the night sky; so he spoke these words with all of his might:

‘Moon on the field and the foam

Moon on the mount and the wold

Moon, bring them home, bring them home.

Safe from the dark and the cold,

Home, sweet moon, bring them home,

Safe with the flock to the fold.’

And through the blur in the mist and the dark, the moon ‘gan to glow and gleam. His sheep only numbered 16. So again he sounded the rhyme. And this time 4 more appeared. Now he still was missing 5. So once more, he sounded the verse as the moon rose in the night sky.

‘Moon on the field and the foam….’

And, ‘lo in the dark, 5 white marks came bleating along the hillside. And back in the hollow under the ridge, there gathered all 25:

___ _ ‘Slowly, silently now the moon

Walks the night in her silver swoon

This way and that way

She turns and she sees

Silver lambs and silver sheep.’

A Shepherd Boy’s Flute:

(A Norwegian Folk Tale translated by Dan Lindholm and written in free verse by Katherine Rudolph)

13.‘Of a poor shepherd Boy on the first Christmas tide, this

Tale is oft told; may it spread far and wide, who

Weary and windblown, aching with cold, long sought

a lamb that had wandered alone, lost it was, straggling astray.

Along the trail of a dried up brook, behind the shadow of

bramble and bush; everywhere did the shepherd boy search

uphill and down, in the land beyond Bethlehem, city of David…

At last at the top, he scanned o’er the plains of the ancient

Land of Judea and BEHOLD now the wonder that entered

His heart, when an angel appeared amidst the night stars

And the heavens rang forth to rejoice in the birth of

The babe who was born in a manger; these words spoke

The angel of peace: ‘Have now no fear, you keeper

of sheep. Your lost lamb is fast asleep, and safe in the

lower pasture. A greater shepherd has been born to save

the world from sin and scorn, the Saviour to be Christ

the Lord, in Bethlehem this sacred morn’: Make haste;

Make haste to the babe in a manger’

‘A saviour is born, and I so forlorn; what have I to give

him on the wondrous morn: Alas, I’ve no gift.’

But the Angel answered him thus: ‘Nothing to give? Seest

thon aright. Take now this flute; let it ring in the light

that shineth so bright in an orb around the manger.’

With this the Angel disappeared and uttered not another

word; but the shepherd saw that it was true, for

on the ground, there shone a flute. This he held then

to his mouth and, lo it played all by itself, O’Hear!

Seven pure tones did fill the air, such as one might hope

to hear, ringing from the heavenly spheres…

The ass and the ox pricked up their ears; the other shepherds

gathered their herd; Mary and Joseph beamed with joy,

at the tone of the poor ragged shepherd boy, but the

Christ child in the manger low, wrapped in light, and

swaddled in clothes, stretched out his tiny hand to touch

the flute that the shepherd lad had borne through

trials and woe, and BEHOLD how that flute did glow.

Seven pure tones both full and clear did fill the air, as they

had before; just as the shepherd boy first received as a gift

from the Angel of comfort and peace…

High in the hills, the tale is still told, how he’s ought

the lamb that fled from the fold; how weary and heartsick

he hearkened and heard, tidings of the Saviour, Christ the Lord.

Sam’s Adventure (4th grade)

(Used for a boy who overcame stuttering)

Sam grew up with the blacksmiths. Since his earliest days he had heard their pounding hammers. He had learned to walk and talk to their rhythms. One day, while talking to a friend he described the situation:

1. Swart smirched smiths, smattered with smoke

Drive me to death with din of their dents.

Such noise on nights one ne’er heard never

Such clashing of cries and clattering of knocks

The craftsmen clamour for coal, coal, coal.

And blow their bellows their brains to burst…

– Old English Alliteration

Sam said, ‘That may be great for blacksmiths but I want to be a bard and write about my adventures.’ So he decided to “Take the road.”

2. ‘Let us take the road

Hark, I hear the sound of coaches

The hour of the march approaches

It will soon be the time to go.’

And Sam went a-walking and a-talking

3. and a-walking and a-talking

As he walked he spoke G N SH F W

4. go now, show free will.

5. He shot an arrow into the air and it landed in a hollow oak, where Sam found a crystal quartz. There was a message etched in the tree bark, which said K. L. S. F. M. = ‘Clue left Sam, from Mu.’ Is the crystal the clue? Same spoke the words 3 times:

‘Clue left Sam from Mu

Clue left Sam from Mu

Clue left Sam from Mu.’

A spiral path opened up for him. He followed, tossing the crystal from hand to hand.

And indeed, there in the rock was a ‘staff stuck in the stone’. On top of the staff sat a little elfin creature who said ‘I am Mu. I left the clue. The clue left Sam from Mu, KLSFM will get you through. Now take your staff and wander!’ And Sam did.

And Sam arrived at the ocean. He looked up at the sea cliffs and saw a cane high up. ‘My, I would like to climb up there.’ KLSFM and Mu gave the clue. “Speak Sam! If you say ‘Staff roof’, then will your staff root. Say ‘Staff loosen’ and your staff will loosen. That way you will reach the top’.

‘Staff , root

Staff, loosen

Staff, root’

Sam reached the top.

He came to the entrance of the cave just in time to see a dwarf disappearing around a bend in the tunnel. Sam followed and saw the dwarf walk across a dangerous swinging bridge. Mu asked, ‘What will you do?’. Sam answered:

9. O’er the bridge will I march

___ _ ___ On I go to the end

Courage be my true guide.

When he reached the other side, the tunnel opened into a round room carved in white marble. In the middle a shimmering pool was a-glow. ‘Twas the Shimmering Pool of Krie where pictured stories were told and seen a myriad riddles unfold. Mu told the rule, ‘qu st z f p m’, questions for poems. A bard’s pool of yore. Your question is the key! So Sam asked, ‘Where did that dwarf go?’ And Sam stepped into the ‘Story of Iggy the Dwarf’.

Suddenly he was at the beach again and he met the Bard’s Boat. A rowing boat it was. When Sam climbed on board, he was given an oar, while he rowed the story was told:

10. Iggy Dwarf was bold and bearded

On a kind of quest adventure,

Seeking seeds in ancient wondrous

Long forgotten lands of Krienols,

Ochre earth was once transparent,

And the sun was deeply shining,

Sowing seeds was his endeavour

For he knew the herbs of healing.

Iggy sought the root intended

For restoring words and phrases

Lost amidst the drooping dismal

Mud lands underneath the marshes.

That one root ‘galearis’ was

grown no longer in the gardens

Farmers never sowed the seedlings

For they vanished all together.

Iggy knew the reason why,

And what he knew made him unhappy.

Witch Xethea had the seeds all

Hoarded deep in her Rock Castle.

He decided to discover

Where they were and how to get them.

King Kroleen was growing weaker

Weary was he, nearly failing.

Witch Xethea’s castle built on

Sea cliffs rose above the waters

Iggy found at last the entrance

Stepping from steep stony stairsteps.

Gloom met Iggy when he entered

Blundered down dark hallways hiding

Sought the cave rooms where Xethea

Brewed her potions good and rotten.

For 7th grade and above, written in hexameter by Katherine Rudolph:

Hidden away in the woodlands – has Percival grown into manhood.

Blind to the ways of the world – knowing nought of the rulers of kingdoms.

There Herzeleide his mother – tells only the secrets of nature

Beauty of streams and of paths – in the forest are all he encounters.