Readers Theater: The Poky Little Puppy

The Poky Little Puppy

Scripted for Readers Theatre

(Story By Janette Sebring Lowrey, a Golden Book)

Cast:

Narrator 1, Narrator 2, Narrator 3, Narrator 4; Puppy 1, Puppy 2, Puppy 3, Puppy 4, Poky Little Puppy, Mother

Narrator 1:  Five puppies dug a hole under the fence and went for a walk in   

the wide, wide world. 

Narrator 2: Through the meadow they went, down the road, over the bridge,

across the green grass, and up the hill, one after the other.  When they

got to the top of the hill, they counted themselves.

Puppy 1: One, two, three, four…

Puppy 2: Now where in the world is that poky little puppy?

Puppy 3: He certainly isn’t on top of this hill.

Puppy 4: I only see a fuzzy caterpillar and a quick green lizard.

Narrator 3: But when they looked down at the grassy place near the bottom

of the hill, there he was, running round and round, his nose to the ground.

Puppy 1: What is he doing?

Narrator 4: And down they went to see, roly-poly, pell-mell, tumble-bumble,

till they came to the green grass; and there they stopped short.

Puppy 2: What in the world are you doing?

Poky Little Puppy: I smell something

Narrator 4: Then the four little puppies began to sniff, and they smelled it too.

Puppy 3: Rice pudding!

Puppy 4: We have to go home for dinner!

Narrator 1: They went home as fast as they could go, over the bridge up the

road, through the meadow, and under the fence. 

Narrator 2: Sure enough, there was dinner waiting for them, with rice

pudding for dessert.

Mother: So you’re the little puppies who dig holes under fences!  No rice

pudding tonight!  You will go straight to bed.

Narrator 3: But the poky little puppy came home after everyone was sound

asleep.  He ate up the rice pudding and crawled into bed as happy as a lark.

Narrator 4: The next morning someone had filled the hole and put up a sign.

It said: Don’t ever dig holes under this fence! 

Narrator 1: But the five little puppies dug a hole under the fence, just the

same, and went for a walk in the wide, wide world.

Narrator 2: Through the meadow they went, down the road, over the bridge,

across the green grass and up the hill, two and two.  When they got to

the top of the hill, they counted themselves.

Puppy 1: One, two, three, four…

Puppy 2: Now where in the world is that poky little puppy?

Puppy 3: He certainly isn’t on top of this hill.

Puppy 4: I only see a big black spider, and a brown hop-toad.

Narrator 3: But when they looked down at the grassy place near the bottom

of the hill, there he was, sitting still as a stone, with his head on one side

and his ears cocked up.

Puppy 1: What is he doing?

Narrator 4: And down they went to see, roly-poly, pell-mell, tumble-bumble,

till they came to the green grass; and there they stopped short.

Puppy 2: What in the world are you doing?

Poky Little Puppy: I hear something.

Puppy 3: Chocolate custard!

Puppy 4: I hear someone spooning it into our bowls! We have to go home for

dinner!

Narrator 1: They went home as fast as they could go, over the bridge up the

road, through the meadow, and under the fence. 

Narrator 2: Sure enough, there was dinner waiting for them, with chocolate

custard for dessert.

Mother: So you’re the little puppies who dig holes under fences!  No chocolate

custard tonight!  You will go straight to bed.

Narrator 3: But the poky little puppy came home after everyone was sound

asleep.  He ate up the chocolate custard and crawled into bed as happy as a lark.

Narrator 4: The next morning someone had filled the hole and put up a sign.

It said: Don’t ever, EVER dig holes under this fence! 

Narrator 1: But the five little puppies dug a hole under the fence, just the

same, and went for a walk in the wide, wide world.

Narrator 2: Through the meadow they went, down the road, over the bridge,

across the green grass and up the hill, two and two.  When they got to

the top of the hill, they counted themselves.

Puppy 1: One, two, three, four…

Puppy 2: Now where in the world is that poky little puppy?

Puppy 3: He certainly isn’t on top of this hill.

Puppy 4: I only see a little grass snake, and a big grasshopper.

Narrator 3: But when they looked down at the grassy place near the bottom

of the hill, there he was, looking hard at something on the ground in

front of him.

Puppy 1: What is he doing?

Narrator 4: And down they went to see, roly-poly, pell-mell, tumble-bumble,

till they came to the green grass; and there they stopped short.

Puppy 2: What in the world are you doing?

Poky Little Puppy: I see something.

Narrator 4: The puppies could see it too.  It was a ripe red strawberry

growing there in the grass.

Puppy 3: Strawberry shortcake!

Puppy 4: We have to go home for dinner!

Narrator 1: They went home as fast as they could go, over the bridge up the

road, through the meadow, and under the fence. 

Narrator 2: Sure enough, there was dinner waiting for them, with strawberry

shortcake for dessert.

Mother: So you’re the little puppies who dig holes under fences!  No

strawberry shortcake tonight!  You will go straight to bed.

Narrator 3: But the four little puppies waited till they thought mother was

asleep.  They slipped out and filled up the hole.

Mother: What good little puppies!  Come and have some strawberry

shortcake!

Narrator 1: This time, when the poky little puppy got home, he had to

squeeze in through a wide place in the fence. 

Narrator 2: There were his four brothers and sisters, licking the last crumbs

from their saucer.

Mother: Dear me! What a pity you’re so poky. Now the strawberry shortcake

is all gone!

Narrator 3: The poky little puppy had to go to bed without a single bite of

shortcake, and he felt very sorry for himself.

Narrator 4: The next morning, someone had put up a sign that read: No

desserts ever unless puppies never dig holes under this fence again!