Differences In Looks And Seasons

Grandma Lu said, "Thumbelina was so happy. She loved that beautiful butterfly. She took off her tiny belt and tied one end of it around the butterfly and the other end she fastened to the leaf that she was sitting on. Now she was  sailing really fast on the beautiful water. The sun was shining, the birds and Thumbelina were singing pretty little songs.  It was a wonderful day. She saw babies outside enjoying the flowers as she passed by on her tiny little leaf. Everyone was having a wonderful day."

"Suddenly there was a huge beetle that flew by. The minute he saw Thumbelina he put his feelers around her waist and flew with her into a tree. Her little green leaf floated away and the butterfly floated away with it because he was fastened to it."

"The beetle gave Thumbelina some honey from the flowers to eat and told her that she was very pretty, but she didn't look like him at all. Soon other beetles came to look at her and decided that since she only had two legs that she was ugly, just because she didn't look like them. That's not very nice is it? We all look different don't we?"

Marlee said, "I told somebody their face was dirty because they had freckles. I had never seen freckles before. My mama said not to say something like that to other people 'cause it might hurt their feelings. So I won't do that anymore."
Grandma Lu said, "Good for you, Marlee. I had a little boy that had lots and lots of freckles. I called them sunshine kisses. He would get lots more freckles when he was out in the sun. Some people never get freckles; we are all different."

"As you get older you will meet people that have different color skin, that are taller than you or bigger than you. Everyone is made different. Differences are so interesting. It wouldn't be very fun if we all looked alike, would it?" The children agreed.

"The beetles were all talking naughty about Thumbelina. They said, "She has no feelers, and only two legs, her waist is quite little, not like ours. The other beetles convinced the beetle that had put Thumbelina in the tree that she was ugly, so he picked her up and put her on a daisy and flew away even though he thought that she was pretty."

"As time went by Thumbelina lived all by herself in the forest. She even wove herself a little bed out of blades of grass and put it under a leaf. She drank the dew which is a little bit of water and ate the honey from the flowers. You may put a tiny drop of water on a flower leaf that you have. That's about the amount of water a dew drop has in it. That's not very much is it? We need more to drink than that don't we because we are bigger than Thumbelina was."

"There are four seasons in a year. When Thumbelina was first born it was summer. It was warm and sunny, wasn't it? The flowers were blooming and she kept warm with a flower petal."
"Does anybody know what season comes after Summer? Fall does, doesn't it? With the season changes the weather changes also. It gets colder. The flowers dry up and have no more flower petals until next year. After Fall comes Winter. What happens in the Winter?"
Charlie, Landon, Jordan, and Raelie all had different things to say about wintertime. They talked about Halloween and trick or treating, Santa Claus, and Christmas, and playing in the snow.

Many children had learned that where they lived it got cold in the winter, but just like people differences where we live is different for a lot of people too. Some places even though it is winter it is warm, but for lots of people the weather gets cold and even some snow.
Cooper lives where it is warm most of the time, so he can go swimming most of the year.

" Okay, now that it was winter, Thumbelina had no more flower petals or water to drink. Her clothes became very torn and dirty. Then it began to snow. What do you do when you are cold? You shiver don't you? Well that's what Thumbelina began to do. She decided to walk through the cornfields to see if she could find someplace where she could be warmer. Let's hope she finds somewhere nice and warm."