THE PRINCES OF THE YEAR
It happened, many centuries
ago, that a powerful king thought of appointing three princes to travel
continuously throughout his kingdom. The
king called them: Summer, Autumn, Winter.
The king sent the prince
Summer to his people, but within a few days of his arrival, the springs dried
up and thirst and heat threatened to devour the lives of all the inhabitants of
the kingdom.
The king then sent Prince
Autumn, who arrived accompanied by many fruits as a gift. But within a few days
the trees lost their leaves, the sky was covered with grey clouds laden with
water, and the wind whipped through the fields and villages.
The cold, majestic Prince
Winter arrived later, accompanied by hundreds of vassals holding his heavy
ermine cloak. The cold heart of the prince froze everything around him.
Seeing the sadness of his
people, the king had compassion on him and decided to seek a solution.
In golden and dreamy regions,
lived a princess called Primavera. The monarch sent for her, and as soon as the
princess entered the king's domain, the earth was covered with flowers, the
birds sang happily building their nests and the trees dressed their branches in
green. A soft, clean sun shone in the sky, and at night the stars shone with
extraordinary brilliance.
The king then left the country
in the hands of the four princes, and they travelled through the kingdom always
in this order: Spring-Summer-Autumn-Winter.
- Answer these
questions about the story :
What did he call the three princes?
What happened to Summer?
What happened to Autumn?
What happened to Winter?
Who managed to fix everything?
FLYING STARS
- Mommy, Mommy, run, come to the window! -shouted Maria.
- What's the matter?
- Look, there are little flying stars in the garden!
- How beautiful they are! -replied the mother. But they are not stars:
they are fireflies. You can usually see them on summer nights.
- Are fireflies dangerous? Do they bite? -asked Maria.
- They're not dangerous at all," answered her mother.
Maria went down to the garden. After a while she went back upstairs screaming:
- Mummy, Mummy! I took a firefly and put it in this glass jar. I'm going
to put it in my room and it will light me up all night.
- Oh, poor firefly! Do you really think it will give you light? Can't
you see it's out of light?
- Because fireflies have light only in the dark," said Mary. Let's
turn off the light and you'll see, Mama.
The mother turned off the light. But the firefly in the jar didn't give
a single ray of light.
- Why doesn't it light up? -asked Mary.
- Because she is sad and feels like a prisoner. What would you do if you
were locked up?
Mary understood that she had to let the firefly go. She went to the
window and opened the jar. The
firefly flew away leaving a trail of light.
- Answer these questions about the story :
What was really flying in the garden?
When do you usually see fireflies?
Where do you keep the firefly?
Why doesn't the firefly
light up?
