Rascal's Festive Fun by Holly Webb Page B

with Rascal, thinking about snow, and the Christmas holidays. Even before the holidays began, there was all the fun stuff to do at school. They were having the final rehearsals for the Christmas play, and they’d been learning lots of Christmas songs.
    â€œâ€˜Dashing through the snow, in a one-horse open sleigh…’” Ellie sang happily, and Rascal joined in with an excited little yip. “Are you singing too, Rascal?” she said, patting him.
    â€œThat sounded really good, Ellie!”Dad laughed, as they reached their gate. “Very festive! That reminds me, we’d better go and get our Christmas tree at the weekend.”
    â€œOooh, yes,” Ellie agreed, as they walked up the path. Then she stopped suddenly, halfway to the front door. “Dad, I’ve just had a brilliant idea! Me and Jack and some of the others from dog training could sing carols at the Christmas Fair! That would get everyone in a Christmassy mood, wouldn’t it?”
    Dad nodded. “It does sound like a good idea. Why don’t you suggest it to Jo at the Thursday class?” He looked at her hopefully. “Ellie, shall we go into the house now? My toes are about to freeze off!” 

Chapter Three
Crafty Christmas
    “That sounds like a really cool idea,” Christy said, as she carefully sprinkled red glitter on to the photo frame she was making. Miss Wright was letting them do lots of Christmas crafts now that it was the last week of term.
    “I hope Jo says yes. It would get everyone feeling really Christmassy, and then they’d want to go and buy loads of presents and things!” Ellie smiled. “Did you get a leaflet about the shelter at the weekend?They really need to raise some money.”
    Christy nodded. “It was so sad! All those dogs with no proper homes. I showed it to Mum and Dad, but they said one dog was enough, especially when he’s as big as Bouncer.” Bouncer was Christy’s golden Labrador. He was gorgeous and very well-behaved, but there was no denying that he took up a lot of room.
    “We got one too,” Lucy put in. “They must have delivered them all over town. Some of the dogs looked really sweet.”
    Ellie smiled at her. Lucy wasn’t a huge dog fan – she’d been quite scared of them until she’d come to Ellie’s birthday sleepover, and Rascal had “adopted” her. It was as though he’d known Lucy wasscared, and he’d done everything he could to prove how nice dogs can be.
    “Are you excited about this afternoon?” Ellie asked her, and Lucy nodded, wrinkling her nose.
    “Excited but scared at the same time. I woke up in the middle of the night and I was certain it was all going to go wrong! But I felt better about my solo this morning when I saw my costume again – it’s so pretty.”
    Lucy had joined their school in the summer term, and had quickly made friends with Ellie and Christy. She was a brilliant dancer, and a few weeks ago she’d been showing them one of her ballet exam pieces in the playground when Miss Wright, their new teacher for Year Four, had spotted her. When the rehearsals for the Christmas play started, Lucy found out that she’d been cast as a snowflake, with a solo dance to do. It was the dress rehearsal that afternoon, and the show was tomorrow evening.
    Ellie was actually quite glad she was only an elf in the play. She had one line to say, “The dark forest is that way!” and lots of songs and a bit of dancing. That was quite enough. She loved being in plays, but she didn’t want to be centre-stage like Lucy, or Christy, who was an elf too, but with loads of words to say.
    “Ellie, that’s beautiful!” Miss Wright was leaning over their table. “Really clever, the way you’ve built up the layers so the holly leaves look solid.”

    “Thank you!” Ellie stuck another bead on to the picture frame. They were making them as presents for their parents. Miss Wright had taken photos of them in their play costumes to put inside. As