Penny the Puppy Learns to Read - A Children's Story

  

Penny the Puppy Learns to Read
By Bill Conley
America’s Favorite Children’s Storyteller

Moral of the Story:

Every big reader starts small. Each word is a tiny victory worth celebrating. Don’t rush, take one step, one sound, and one page at a time. Learning new things can be fun when you keep trying. Mistakes are not failures; they’re part of the journey. With patience and practice, confidence will bloom. Reading opens doors to worlds you’ve never seen before. Believe you can, and you will.

It was a sunny morning in Whispering Woods School, where Mrs. Owl taught all the young animals.
Her round glasses glowed in the morning light as she fluttered to the chalkboard.

“Good morning, class,” Mrs. Owl hooted. “Today, we will learn to read!”

The classroom buzzed. Penny the Puppy wagged her tail nervously beside Max the Mouse and Lulu the Lamb.

“Read?” Penny whispered. “That sounds hard!”

Mrs. Owl smiled kindly. “All learning begins with one word, my dear.”

She took her chalk and wrote on the board:
See Spot Run.

“Now watch and listen,” said Mrs. Owl.
She pointed her feather at the first word. “See.”
“See,” the class repeated.

Then she pointed to the next. “Spot.”
“Spot!” They barked, squeaked, and bleated together.

“And now, ‘Run,’” Mrs. Owl said.
“Run!” the class shouted proudly.

“Wonderful!” hooted Mrs. Owl. “Now let’s put it all together.”
The class stood tall and said,
“See Spot Run!”

Penny’s tail wagged faster. “I did it!” she barked. “I can read!”

“Of course you can,” said Mrs. Owl. “Let’s try another.”
She wrote:
See the sun.

Max the Mouse squeaked, “See the sun!”
Lulu the Lamb bleated, “See the sun!”
Penny barked with joy, “See the sun!”

“Excellent!” said Mrs. Owl. “Now you’re readers!”

Penny’s eyes sparkled. “Can I make one up?”

Mrs. Owl chuckled. “Go right ahead.”

Penny took the chalk in her paw and, with a little wobble, wrote:
See Pup Run Fast!

The class clapped and cheered. Mrs. Owl beamed with pride.

“You see,” she said softly, “learning to read is like learning to bark your first words; it takes courage and time.”

At the end of the day, Penny skipped home, tail wagging high.
She couldn’t wait to show her parents the words she had learned.

As she walked through the forest, she whispered the sentences again and again:
“See Spot Run. See the Sun. See Pup Run Fast.”

Her heart was full of pride.
Penny the Puppy was now a reader.

Poem:

One small word, then two, then three,
A magic world you start to see.
Each sound you say, each page you turn,
Shows how much you love to learn.
Don’t give up, just try once more.
Each word you read will open doors.
The joy of reading starts today,
So keep on learning all the way!

Questions for Discussion:

1.     What did Mrs. Owl teach Penny and her friends to do?

2.     How did Penny feel when she learned her first words?