A GIFT FROM UNCLE

Do you have an uncle living far away?

Miriam has. His name is Max. Miriam calls
him Uncle Max. He lives in New York.
Last Christmas, Uncle Max sent Miriam a
gift. It came in a big heavy box. Father
helped open the box.
Then they saw something very pretty. It
was a big doll. It had round blue eyes and a
small red mouth. It had a blue lace dress and
curly black hair. Miriam called it Curly. She
loved to play with it. What Miriam liked
best was the way Curly walked. Miriam
would hold one of its hands and they would
walk together around the living room. Curly
made Miriam happy.

TAKING CARE OF
ANIMALS
 Victor lives on a farm. He lives with his
parents in a little nipa house. Victor has an
elder sister named Nora. Victor and Nora
help their parents. They help take care of
their animals. They have a carabao, a horse,
a goat and some chickens. Father takes care
of the horse. Victor takes care of the
carabao. Mother takes care of the chickens.
Nora takes care of the goat. Their animals
are all fat and healthy. Each one takes care
of his animal very well.

THE NEWSBOY

At five o’clock in the afternoon, the train

arrives in Naga City. The train carries the
newspaper from Manila. Alfredo, a Grade
Four pupil, sells newspaper after class in the
afternoon. He sells for two hours. At seven
o’clock, he goes home. He has time to study
his lessons.
Alfredo earns one hundred pesos a day.
He wants to give his money to Mother. But
Mother told him to put his money in his
piggy bank. Alfredo’s parents are not poor.
They can give him the money he needs, but
Alfredo wants to sell newspaper. He wants
to earn his own money.

THE COCONUT

The coconut is a tall palm tree. It has no

branches. The trunk is strong. It makes a
good post. We get oil from the ripe coconut
milk. The young coconut meat is good to
eat. It is good for making candies and salad.
Doormats are made out of the coconut husk.
The long coconut leaves are woven into
baskets. Brooms are made from the midribs
of the long leaves. Coconut shells are made
into buttons, coconut shell banks, ash trays
and many others. The stalk of the leaves is
good for fuel. How useful the coconut is!
Every part of it can be used.

OCTOPUS

Octopuses are related to snails. But unlike

snails, an octopus doesn’t have shell to
protect it. Instead, this animal which has
eight arms squeezes its soft body into small
cracks or holes in rocks.
Once it is safely hidden, it is very hard for
conger eels, sharks, seals and people to find
and eat the octopus.
If an octopus is frightened, it does not
solely crawl away. It jets off! It does this by
forcing water out through its siphon to make
it shoot
 through the sea.

THE BUTTERFLY
One afternoon Luisa took her little sister,
Ann, to the garden. They saw a butterfly. The
butterfly was resting on a flower. Ann ran to
the butterfly. She wanted to catch it. The
butterfly flew away. It rested again on another
flower.
“Do not disturb the pretty butterfly,” said
Luisa. “It is sucking the nectar of the flower.
Look at its pretty wings. It folds its wings
when it rests. It opens its wings when it flies.”
“Does the butterfly fly at night?” asked Ann.
“No, the butterfly sleeps at night. It flies
from flower to flower at daytime. It likes the
flowers. It likes the nectar of the flowers.
Nectar is sweet,” said Luisa.
 Then Luisa picked a flower. She showed Ann
the nectar of the flower.

THE CATERPILLAR
Linda went to the garden one morning.
She saw that only few leaves were left on the
plant. Many leaves were eaten. She looked
behind the leaves. She saw a big caterpillar. It
was green. She thought it was a worm. She
got the caterpillar gently with a stick and put
it inside a box. She put some leaves with it.
Every morning she looked inside the box. She
found the leaves gone. So she put new leaves
every day. One day she found the leaves still
there. She thought the caterpillar had died.
She looked well under the leaves. She saw the
caterpillar sleeping inside a rolled leaf. She
left it alone. After several days, she saw a
butterfly on the wall of the box. The
caterpillar was gone! It had grown into
butterfly.
 MEAT-EATING PLANTS

Almost all animals eat plants. But are

there plants that eat animal?
There are some plants that have an
appetite for live animals, especially insects.
This extra food helps them to survive in
poor soils. We call these plants meat-eating
plants. The meat-eating plants trick their
victims into deadly traps. They have
digestive juices to turn the bodies of their
prey into liquids.
An example of meat-eating plant is the
sundew plant. It traps insects in sticky red
hairs that cover its leaves. The hairs curl
over the insects when the insect tries to free
itself. It takes a day or two for a sundew to
eat insect.

RUSHING TO SCHOOL
 The sun was shining through the window
when Tony woke up. He jumped out of bed. He
pulled the towel and ran to the bathroom to take
a bath. He looked at the wall clock. It was
seven-twenty in the morning.
“Only ten minutes more,” he said to himself.
So he just splashed water on his face. He ran
back to the bedroom to change his clothes. He
did not finish tying his shoe lace. He grabbed
his school bag and ran downstairs to eat his
breakfast. He had finished only one half of his
glass of milk when he heard the school bell ring.
He ran out of the house as fast as he could. The
children were singing when Tony reached his
classroom. As he sat down he said to himself, “I
will never watch television late at night again.”

INDEPENDENCE DAY

“Tomorrow is June 12. We will celebrate

our Independence Day. We don’t have classes,
Mother,” Norma told her mother happily.
 “What do you want to do tomorrow then?”
Mother asked.
“Please, Mother, let us go to the Rizal
Park. There will be a parade. Many of my
friends will be there,” Norma said.
“All right. Tell Nelly and Bella to get
ready tomorrow. We shall all go and see the
parade,” Mother said.

MONEY FROM AMERICA

“A letter from America,” the postman said

as he gave the letter to Minda.
“Thank you,” Minda said then called
loudly, “Mother! Father! A letter! It is from
America.”
 Father looked at the letter. It was from
their son, Norman. As Father opened the
letter, something fell from it. Mother picked it
up and said happily, “It is money. It is a one
hundred dollar bill!”
How happy Father and Mother were!
Minda was happy, too. “Now, Mother, you
can buy me a new dress,” Minda said.

A MOONLIGHT NIGHT

The moon was big and bright. The

children played in the moonlight. They
played hide and seek. Mario hid behind
the acacia tree. Andres hid behind
some bushes. Isabel hid behind a pile
of hollow blocks. Rita is behind some
banana plants. Edmund looked around
but saw no one. Just then someone
moved behind the bushes. Edmund ran
to see who it was and found Andres.
 “One, two, three!” he said. “Now you
are ‘It’, Andres.” The children played
and played. How happy they were!

A SICK CLASSMATE

One morning, Miss Luna said to her Grade

Three class, “I got a letter from Teresa’s
mother. Teresa cannot come to school. She is
sick. The doctor told her to stay in bed for a
few days. What shall we do for Teresa?
“Let us visit her this afternoon,” said
Linda.
“Yes, let us visit her,” said the other
children.
That afternoon, the children went to visit
Teresa. The girls brought her some fruits. The
boys brought her a can of biscuit. Miss Luna
brought her some roses.
Teresa was sleeping when they arrived.
Soon, she woke up. She was happy to see her
teacher and classmates.
 GROWING VEGETABLES

Lino went with Mother to market. They

bought some vegetables. Mother said, “I was
able to buy only some with my money.
Vegetables cost much now.”
Lino was sorry for mother. They did not
have much money. So he said, “Let’s plant
vegetables in our backyard. Then we will not
have to buy them in the market.”
So Lino planted three plots of tomatoes,
two plots of eggplants and a plot of pechay.
He had some amargoso climbing on the
bamboo fence. Lino worked in his garden
after class every afternoon. He grew more
vegetables than they could eat. Mother sold
some of them in the market.

THE KITTEN
 One rainy afternoon, Juan did not go
straight home from school. He had his
raincoat on, so he did not get wet. Then he
saw a kitten trembling in the grass. He
stopped and looked at it. It began to mew
very softly.
Juan was sorry for the kitten. He picked it
up and put it under his raincoat. He brought
it home. He put it near the stove with fire.
The kitten looked at Juan and said, “Mew,
mew, mew.” It wanted to say, “Thank you.”
From that time on, the kitten became his pet.
He loved his pet very much.

THE BEES

The bees live in a big family. There are

many bees in the family. We cannot count
them. The bee family is called a swarm. The
swarm lives in the hive. The hive hangs on a
tree. Each swarm has a mother bee. She is
called the queen bee. She is the mother of all
the bees in the swarm. There are two kinds of
bees. The busy bees are called workers. The
lazy bees are called drones. The workers do
not like the drones. They sting the lazy drones.
The workers gather nectar in the hive. The
bees make the nectar in the hive. The bees
make the nectar into honey. Honey is sweet. It
is the food of the young bees.

SCHOOL NEEDS

Samuel has two twenty-peso bills.

Mother gave it to him. He will buy a bottle
of paste, and several pieces of manila
paper. He will cover his books in school.
He will cover his notebooks, too. His
teacher said that all books and notebooks
should be covered.
 “May I buy chocolate if I have some
money left, Mother?” Samuel asked.
“Why not buy a banana or any fruit
instead of chocolate?” Mother asked.
“Okay, I will buy banana,” Samuel said.

A RAINY DAY

It was a rainy day. The children could not

go out to play. So Lucy, Zeny and Perla
stayed in the house.
“Let us cut out paper fruits for our store,”
said Lucy.
So the girls got their paper, scissors and
crayons. Lucy cut out 5 apples. She colored
them red. Zeny cut out 6 mangoes. She
colored them yellow. Perla cut out 4 guavas.
She colored them green. Then they counted
their paper fruits.
 “Now we have many pretty paper fruits for
our store,” said Perla.