Poo on my shoe
By N.Starks
Farmer Brown was walking through the pasture looking for something to do,
When he stepped in something squishy “O, no there is poo on my shoe!”
He shook his foot left and right then gave it flick.
Farmer Brown even tried scraping it with a stick.
Frustrated, he rubbed his foot on a fence.
Suddenly he saw a pond “Ah ha, I will give it a rinse!”
But there was a problem the farmer did not see in his way
“Why there is a pile of rocks blocking the path. Boy, what a day!”
The rocks were many, the rocks were large, and heavy too.
“Oh dear, how will I ever get this poo off my shoe?”
Just then a crow swooped down from the clouds up high,
And came to rest on a pile of rocks nearby.
“Hey there friend, seems you have a problem to rid,
So here is a thought in my birdbrain head.
Move the rocks and make a quick path,
Then get your stinky shoe over there for a bath.”
Farmer Brown knew he could not move the rock one by one,
It would be night fall before he was done.
Then he thought “I know what I’ll do!
I will lay all these rocks by groups of two!
Two, four, six, eight, and then ten
He counted until his path was long and thin.
Two by two he went until he reached forty-eight and then fifty,
His path was finished and it looked nifty.
“That was fast and easy laying the rocks by groups of two,
Now I can get this fumbling poo off my shoe!”
Farmer Brown cleaned his shoe and admired his path of rocks.
Just then the crow flew over and pooed on his sock.
After reading guiding questions:
1. What was Farmer Brown’s problem?
2. Do you agree with the crow’s advice?
3. What would you have done?
4. How many rocks were there in all?
5. Could the Farmer have counted a different way? How do you know?