Second Grade
Worksheets
The First Day of Summer
All the animals of the desert were at the meeting. Tomorrow would be the first day of summer. They knew that the weather would begin to change. They had to make plans. It was already hot. The Elders knew it would get much hotter, though. They knew that the water would dry up. They knew that food would be harder to find.
The Young Ones didn't know about summer. They thought it would be a time to play. They didn't know about the food or the water. They had not lived through a summer before.
"What time does summer start?" Felipe asked.
"The first day of summer starts at 5:46 tomorrow morning," Old Lizard said. "But summer starts when it starts," he added.
Felipe and the other Young Ones weren't listening. They were too busy talking.
"I'm going to stay up all night," Felipe said. "I will be awake when summer comes."
"Me, too," said Jaime.
"Me, too! Me, too! Me, too!" all the Young Ones shouted.
"Ssssilly Young Ones," Old Kingsnake hissed. "Sssso ssssilly."
"Let them see for themselves," Old Gray Fox said. "They will find out soon enough."
That night all the Young Ones went to the top of a small hill. "We will see summer," they said. They talked and laughed. They played games. They ran in circles. They got very tired, but they did not go to sleep. At five o'clock they were still awake.
Mariel looked at her watch. The hands were moving very slowly. "It is a quarter past five," she said. "How many more minutes do we have to wait?"
Saura was very good at math. "We have thirty-one minutes more," she said.
"It will be the best day of the year!" Marco said.
