If You Give A ... at The Virtual Vine

If You Give a ...

Mouse a Cookie

Moose a Muffin

Pig a Pancake

by Laura Numeroff

I'm developing this unit to use with my class, so I'll be working on this page as I go along. I purchased the Mouse, Moose, and Pig from Kohl's this summer that goes along with these three books by Laura Numeroff. So since I haven't introduced the characters or the books to my class yet, I thought this would be a great way to do so ... by doing a mini-unit on each book. The characters will come to visit our class via our class mailbox. (pictures of the mailbox on the Back to School page)

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

If you give a mouse a cookie,

he's going to ask for a glass of milk to go with it!

And that's only the beginning ...

Making Predictions: Show the students the cover of the book and ask them to tell what they think the story will be about.

Picture Walk: Then take your students on a picture walk through the book. Don't read the text, just let them look at each picture and tell what they think is happening in each picture.

Vocabulary: I use a pocketchart for vocabulary words that go with our themes/units. I make a graphic for each word and glue it to a sentence strip, then add the word to the strip and cut off the excess. Then I laminate them. My students use these A LOT during Writing Workshop.

mouse	cookie	milk	straw	napkin	crumbs
broom	mop	mirror	scissors	paper	crayons
pillow	blanket	box	sleep	boy	glass
refrigerator	mustache	hair	house	floor	book
pictures	pen	name	tape	overalls

We've Got Mail!: This will be where the mouse from the book comes to visit!

Story Map: After the story has been read several times, have the students help to complete a story map. Make a map on a large sheet of chart paper by writing the title of the book and the author inside a circle in the middle of the page. Then make more circles radiating out from the circle containing 1) characters in the story 2) setting of the story 3) beginning of the story 4) middle of the story 5) end of the story. This might be a good time to discuss with the students the fact that this book is a "circle story." Each event hinges on the previous event and can continue indefinitely.

Circle Story Diagram: The fact that the story is a circle story can be demonstrated by having students glue pictures representing the events of the story in the proper order around the edge of a circle that has been divided into the appropriate number of sections. Each section of the circle will contain one picture and the pictures will be placed sequentially around the edge of the circle. Once dry, the students can use their circle diagram to retell the story.

Counting: I enlarged a cookie jar pattern to full page size and copied it onto white construction paper. I colored the mouse (thought my hand was going to fall off after 20 of them), cut the jar out and used rubber cement to glue them to blue construction paper. I did the latter step so as to give the jars more support. Some of that white construction paper was really flimsy. Then I programmed each jar with a number 0 - 20. The cookie patterns I reduced in size and copied onto brown construction paper. They had to be small to be able to get 20 cookies in a jar. Everything will be laminated. The students will count the appropriate number of paper cookies into each jar. If you'd prefer, you could use the real mini chocolate chip cookies instead of paper ones. The patterns came from Whole Language Units for Predictable Books #206. But you could use any cookie jar pattern and even create your own cookie pattern. Very cute activity!

Rhyming Words: I enlarged the same cookie pattern from above and made a rhyming words activity. The students will match the rhyming words.

Word Families: I can use these same cookies for a Word Families activity as well. I made a large "glass of milk" pattern (enlarged flannelboard pattern from the same book) and programmed each glass with a word family. The students will sort the cookies into the correct family.

Flannelboard: By the way, these patterns were really intended to be used to create flannelboard pieces. I'm going to do that as well by copying them onto cardstock, coloring and cutting, then having them laminated. I'll hotglue squares of rough sandpaper to the back so they'll stick to the flannelboard. OR, you can hotglue velcro to the back as well. Velcro works really well.

Digging Cookies: Give each student a chocolate chip cookie and let them dig the chips out. They can record their finds each time they dig a chip out by placing a tally mark on a record sheet. (Teaching tally marks is part of our 1st & 2nd grade Saxon Math) Then they can write the total number of chips that they found in their cookie. You can also create a class graph to graph the number of chips in each cookie. That's the way the cookie crumbles! :)

Experiment: Have your students hypothesize what they think will happen to a cookie if it's placed in a glass of milk. Have them record their findings. How long did it take before the cookie began to break down?

Graphing Questions: Provide 2 or 3 different kinds of cookies and let your students have a taste test. Then have them graph their favorite cookie using either a class pictograph or bar graph, or let them complete their own graph using the results. And for you Texas teachers, you can graph their favorite kind of milk, because I think the first ingredient in milk is still .. milk! :) They can graph whether or not they like chocolate, white, or strawberry milk best.

We graphed Peanut Butter, Vanilla, or Chocolate Chip. The children chose their favorite and was given the appropriate color circle for that cookie. Then they either decorated it with chocolate chips using a black crayon or hole reinforcers. They also had a choice of whether or not to cut a "bite" out of the cookie. Afterwards, we transferred the information to individual bar graph sheets (you can see these hanging beside the Favorite Muffin graph below).

Fact or Fantasy: One of our Kindergarten benchmark objectives is for students to distinguish real and make-believe. This is a great story to introduce or reinforce that concept.

Standard Measurement: If you give a mouse a glass of milk, you know he's going to want a straw to go with it! :) So why not let those straws help you teach standard measurement as well. You can either use real plastic/styrofoam drinking glasses for this activity or a picture of a glass of milk. You'll need several glasses and straws. Program each glass with a measurement such as "one inch, two inches, 2 1/2 inches", whatever skill you're working on. Then measure and cut up the straws to match the glasses. You can have one straw per glass (easiest) or several straws per glass (harder). Students will measure the straws and match them to the appropriate glass. For ease in checking, you can program each straw with a letter and then make yourself or the students a card to use when checking. Ex. 1 inch = A, D Check to see that the glass with "1 inch" has straw A and D inside.

Nonstandard Measurement: Give each student a straw or straws and have them use them to measure different objects in the classroom such as the table, a piece of paper, a computer, etc. Be prepared for discussing too much, not enough, half, etc. You can also cut the straws into shorter pieces for "mini straws" or even use stirring sticks, which look like mini straws to me anyway. :)

"Hello, Mouse"

(Tune: Where Is Thumbkin?)

Hello, Mouse.

How are you?

Fine, thank you.

Would you like a cookie?

Yes, thank you.

Here is your cookie.

Thank you, sir.

May I have some milk?

Yes, you may.

Here is your milk.

Thank you, sir.

May I have a straw?

Yes, you may.

Here is your straw.

Thank you, sir.

May I have a napkin?

Yes, you may.

Yes, you may

* the song keeps going through:

Here is your napkin./ May I have a mirror?

Here is the mirror./May I have some scissors?

Here is the scissors./May I have a broom?

Here is the broom./I will sweep the floor.

That's ok.

This song not only reinforces the sequence through the first part of the book, it also reinforces manners.

M is for Mouse: Enlarge a picture of a cute mouse (and a large tummy would be even better) on posterboard and color. Program with Mm and laminate. Cut pictures from magazines, clip art, etc. and to make small picture cards; laminate. Make sure you have plenty of pictures that begin with /m/ and some that do not. Students will sort pictures that begin with /m/ onto the mouse. This activity can be made into a file folder activity for individual use as well.

Estimation: Fill a small, clear cookie/candy jar with mini chocolate chip cookies. Students will estimate how many cookies are in the jar and write their estimates on a slip of paper and drop them into a glass. When everyone has had a chance to complete their estimate, record each estimate on a graph or chart paper. Then have students help count the cookies. Share the cookies with the students, and the person who guessed the correct answer or the closest to the correct answer will get to carry the remaining cookies (or at least a snack bag) home with them.

More/Less/Same/Equal/Too Many/Not Enough: Using mini cookies would be a great way to introduce/reinforce these math terms.

Story Starters:

If you give a mouse a _____, he will ...

Sequencing: Draw a circle on a sheet of 12x18 brown construction paper the size of the paper. Divide the circle into 13 sections (hmmm ... wonder if that's even possible?). Place a picture in each section for something that the mouse wanted or did in the book.

Sections:

1 - cookie

2 - milk

3 - straw

4 - napkin

5 - mirror

6 - scissors

7 - broom

8 - mop

9 - pillow/

blanket

10 - book

11 - paper/

crayons

12 - pen

13 - tape

If you need to make the sections an even number (12), then leave out the mop. The books just says that he "may end up washing the floor."

I just realized that this story isn't a true circle story, or at least what I think of as a circle story. Yes, it can go on and on, BUT ... at the end of the story the book says, "Looking at the refrigerator will remind him that he's thirsty." Why oh why, couldn't Laura Numeroff have written, "Looking at the refrigerator will remind him that he's HUNGRY." Then he could have asked for a cookie and the whole cycle could have begun again. By writing that he's thirsty, she's reversed the order of the cookie and the milk. :(

Story Props: Provide story props for your students to use in retelling the story. Store them in a large clear, plastic "cookie jar". You can even use a regular clear, plastic container with a wide mouth and add a "Cookie Jar" label to it. That instantly turns it into an official cookie jar! :)

Inside the jar you can place a treat bag of mini cookies, a empty 1/2 pint milk carton (make sure you wash it good :(~ ), a straw, a small mirror, a pair of student scissors, a tiny craft broom, a tiny mop (or a picture), a scrap of fabric for a blanket, a miniature book, a small box of 8 crayons, a pen, and an empty tape dispenser. Model, model, model, how to the props to retell the story. Then let everyone have a chance to practice with a partner. Afterwards ask for volunteers to retell in front of the class. When you're finished using it in whole group, add it to a Center to be used individually or in pairs.

Lakeshore also sells the Big Book and the accompanying story props. However, you'll have to supplement the set, because for some reason they did not provide all the props needed.

More Estimating: How many chocolate chips will fit on a cookie? Let's see. Divide your students into groups and give each a large size paper cookie, or provide each student with a regular size paper cookie. Have them estimate how many chips they think it will take to cover their cookie and record their answers. Then provide them with enough chocolate chips to cover their cookie. Have them record the actual number of chips it took as well. You can graph the results if you choose.

Groups of 10: Right now, I'm having a hard time trying to teach my math students about groups of 10 and extras (1st grade Saxon Math). So I'm going to use paper chocolate chip cookies and real chocolate chips to practice. The students will each be given some chocolate chips and have access to a stack of paper cookies. They will count out chips into groups of 10 and place each group on a cookie. Extras will be contained on a small paper plate. Then the students will draw the correct number of cookies on a piece of paper along with the correct number of chips (10) on each cookie. They will draw the extras on the paper plate. They will record:

___ groups ____ extras ____ chips

To count the chips, they have to count the chips by 10s and then be able to add on the extras by counting by 1s. All of this is really hard for my students to grasp.

Counting: Draw 4 or 5 cookies on a page without chips. Place a number beside or underneath each cookie. Copy onto brown construction paper. Students will use Q-tips to dot dark brown or black paint on each cookie to make the appropriate number of chips.

Cookie Addition: Give each student two chocolate chip cookies. Have them count the number of chips in each cookie and write down their answers. Then have them add the two numbers together to get the total number of chips in the cookies. In Saxon Math, we do a story problem each day and draw the picture to go with it. You could do the same with this activity. Have them draw their cookies with the correct number of chips on each one, then write a number sentence and how many chips in all.

ABC Order: Program each paper cookie with a word. Laminate and add a magnet to the back. Students alphabetize the words on the side of a filing cabinet or magnetic board. Store the cookies in a cookie tin. If you'd like to have more than one set of words in the tin, use different kinds of cookies. Ex. one set of words on chocolate chip cookies, one set on Oreos, one set on sugar cookies, one set on cookies with a hole, etc.

Class Book: If You Give Ms. ____'s Class A ... Have each student complete the sentence frame, "If you give (student name) a ____ he/she will ___. Type up each student's response on a separate page and have them illustrate it. Then bind all the pages into a class book. Reread the book many times to the class so that they're very familiar with it before putting it in the Reading Center.

Another Class Book: Have your students vote on one thing to use in rewriting the book. For instance, if they choose a leprechaun (since it's close to St. Patrick's Day) it might say something like:

If You Give a Leprechaun Some Magic

If you give a leprechaun some magic, he will want to make some gold. If he makes some gold, he will want to hide it. If he hides the gold, he'll want a rainbow to mark the spot. To make a rainbow, he'll need some colors. etc.

Go Togethers: I have several activities for Go Togethers that I'll pull out to use. One summer when I was working on my Master's, I made a set of Go Together cards using Print Artist. I printed created a grid on a full sheet, then added two pictures that go together, one in each box of the grid. For example, a street and a stop sign, a tree and a basket of apples, etc. I printed these on cardstock, laminated them, and cut them out. They look very good and have held up really well. And my kids enjoy working with them.

I also have a Go Together activity that I purchased at Dollar Tree. It also has pictures of things that go together and I have another Go Together activity from Lakeshore. It is very cute! It has miniature things that go together such as a toothbrush and toothpaste; a toilet and a plunger! :)

When creating for this book, make sure to include: cookie/milk, glass/straw, mirror/scissors, mop/bucket, crayons/paper, picture/tape, pillow/blanket.

Cookieland: At our last staff development, our principal challenged us to get our students "out of their seat and on their feet"; mostly for 4th and above. But, with that in mind, I've tried getting my students "on their feet" even more than usual. So I created this activity in an effort to do that.

Make a large cookie pattern the size of a sheet of paper. Copy onto brown construction paper. I copied enough to program a cookie with each lowercase letter and enough for the numbers 1 - 20. (46 cookies .. I'm still cutting them out!) I cut out the letters and numbers in brightish colors using the Ellison. They'll be glued onto the cookies with rubber cement. Make a large mouse and program it with "Start", and a glass of milk and program it with "Finish." Make playing cards by programming index cards with the lowercase letters and the numbers 1 - 20. Add "move forward 2 spaces", "move backwards one space", etc. cards to the stack as well. Everything will be laminated before use.

Spread the cookies out on the floor in random order to form a path to create a life size board game. Place the mouse at the beginning of the path and the glass of milk at the end. Your students will be life sized game pieces! :) The students will take turns identifying the letter/number on the cards. If they correctly identify the letter/number, they go stand by the letter/number identified or follow the directions on the card. If they do not get their card right, then they remain where they are and the letter/number is told to the group. The card goes back into the stack. The first person to "Finish" wins!

You can mix the letters and numbers for a huge board game, or make it into two different games. I'll do the latter. You can also use this activity for reinforcing letter sounds as well. Instead of identifying the letter, they identify the letter sound. I also intend on using this with sight word cards. The students will ignore the letters/numbers on the cookies and simply use them as a pathway. If they can read the sight word, they advance one space, if they can't, they don't. First one to finish wins. The good thing about this is that you can make your path as long or short as you'd like.

Exploring Volume: This is another one of the kindergarten benchmark objectives and milk containers are perfect for this activity. Collect milk cartons in one gallon, one quart, one pint, and 1/2 pint. Students can explore and discuss which one holds more and less. To continue the activity, remove the carton they chose correctly, and keep asking the question. Eventually you should be down to one container. I also have collected a chocolate milk quart container and a white milk quart container that are totally different in shape. This will be the ones that I look for them to identify when I ask, "Which two do you think would hold the same amount of milk?"

Story Problems: Make a cookie jar math mat for each student. Provide them with several small cookie cut-outs. As you read a story problem to the class, the students add or subtract cookies in their jar. You can see at a glance who has a grasp of the concept.

Shapes: I have an activity at school that goes along with the cookie theme. I purchased it at Big Lot's. The pieces look like Oreo cookies and you unscrew them. On one side of the cookie half is a protruding shape, and on the other half of the cookie is an indented shape. For the two cookie halves to screw back together, the student must match up the correct shapes.

Drama: In your kitchen, set up for the students to bake cookies! Pretend ones that is. :) Provide a cookie sheet, spatula, bowl, wooden spoon, apron, some empty spice canisters, maybe a couple of large plastic jars labeled "Sugar" & "Flour" for canisters, some plastic Easter eggs in an egg carton, and an empty plastic oil and milk container. Then watch the mixing begin!!! You can also add some brown or homemade playdough (add in Hersey's Cocoa Mix for color and aroma) so that they can make their cookies to bake. Don't forget a toy size rolling pin and some round cookie cutters; they're a hit! For literacy, add a Grocery List and a pencil for the students to write down things they're running out of or need to purchase at the grocery store.

Story Sort: Which things did you see in the story? Provide pictures of things that were in the story as well as things that were not. (You can find pictures for each letter here <http://www.kizclub.com/flashcards.htm> if you're in need of clipart ... just reduce them in size and copy onto cardstock.) Have students sort things that were in the story into a plastic "cookie jar" (plastic jar labeled Cookies).

Art Project: Print out the pattern and copy onto appropriate color construction paper. If you'd like students to create their own face (eyes and nose pattern provided), white out the eyes and nose on the face before printing. Students cut out pieces and glue onto a sheet of construction paper. The "rough draft" page provided is so that you can see how to put him together at a glance, reserving all that brain energy for your students. :) Do not try to adjust your computer, :) this mouse is actually blue with an orange cookie. I didn't have gray and brown construction paper here at home.

printable pattern

Culminating Activity: Buy tubes of chocolate chip cookie dough, or even those new pull apart cookies, and have students help make and bake them. Mmmm! Yummy!!!! Of course if you give them a cookie, you'll have to give them some milk to go with it! :) And if you give them some milk, you'll have to give them a straw to go with it! And if you give them a straw, you'll have to give them a napkin as well!

Afterwards, I have the students help come with the steps for baking cookies. After we agree on the steps, I write them in simple sentences on sentence strips and put them in the pocketchart. We read them several times, then mix up the sentences and work to put them back in order. Then I put all the sentence strips out on a table and have the students tell me what comes first, next, etc. I show them the sentence strip and they put it in the pocketchart. (If they can read it, then they just read and place it there on their own.) They keep working on it until it's "just right."

We baked cookies yesterday and our steps for that were:

1) Plug in the oven. (We're talking about a toaster oven here. We tried baking without it being plugged in. :) I didn't realize it was unplugged!!! So they thought that was funny.)

2) Turn on the oven. (to warm up)

3) Put the cookies on the pan. (we used those pull-apart cookies)

4) Bake the cookies for 10 minutes.

5) Put the cookies on a plate. (to cool)

6) Eat the cookies!

The children loved doing this and the cookies were very good. We used Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chunk Cookies. I think one package made 24 cookies. Of course, we're adding the package to our Environmental Print Wall and we talked about "c" and the /c/ sound, "ch" and the /ch/ sound, and square (since the cookies are pre-cut into squares). We could have also talked about "dozen", but we're not quite ready for that yet. :)

Book Extensions:

Mouse Count ~ Ellen S. Walsh

Mouse Paint ~ Ellen S. Walsh

Four Brave Sailors ~ Mirra Ginsburg

Frederick ~ Leo Lionni

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, And The Big Hungry Bear ~ Don and Audrey Wood

Norman The Doorman ~ Don Freeman

The Mouse and the Motorcycle ~ Beverly Cleary

Come Out and Play, Little Mouse ~ Robert Kraus

Where Are You Going, Little Mouse ~ Robert Kraus

The Lion and the Mouse

Town Mouse, Country Mouse (Jan Brett has a version of this)

Cookie Count, A Tasty Pop-Up ~ Robert Subuda

Who Took the Cookies From the Cookie Jar? ~ Lass, Bonnie, & Philemon Sturgess

Mmm, Cookies! ~ Robert Munsch

The Cookie-Store Cat ~ Cynthia Rylant

Gus and Grandpa and the Christmas Cookies ~ Claudia Mills

Woodrow, the White House Mouse ~ Peter W. Barnes

Cat and Mouse in the Rain ~ Tomek Bogacki

Little Mouse's Big Valentine ~ Thacher Hurd

If You Take a Mouse To School ~ Laura Numeroff

Whose Mouse Are You? ~ Robert Kraus

Mouse Views - What the Class Pet Saw ~ Bruce McMillan

Mousekin's Family ~ Edna Miller

House Mouse, Senate Mouse ~ Peter & Cheryl Barnes

Ralph S. Mouse ~ Beverly Cleary

A Mouse Called Wolf ~ Dick King-Smith

Mouse Tales ~ Arnold Lobel

A Mouse In My House - Nancy Van Laan

Resources:

If You Give A Mouse a Cookie - The Mailbox K-1 Oct/Nov 2005

Whole Language Units for Predictable Books #206 - Teacher Created Materials 1995

Laura Numeroff - The Mailbox Kindergarten Oct/Nov 1999

Mouse Poem - The Mailbox Kindergarten Aug/Sept 1997

Mouse Patterns - The Mailbox Kindergarten Aug/Sept 1997

Elephant and Mouse booklet and song - The Mailbox Kindergarten Aug/Sept 1997

Cheesy Treats (mouse) - The Mailbox Kindergarten Dec/Jan 1998 - 99

Mouse Patterns - The Mailbox Kindergarten Apr/May 1999

Mouse Patterns - The Mailbox Kindergarten Aug/Sept 1999

Little Mouse - The Mailbox Kindergarten June/July 2000

Mouse Patterns - The Mailbox Kindergarten June/July 2000

Mouse Reproducible - The Mailbox Kindergarten June/July 2001

Merry Mouse Cookie - The Mailbox Kindergarten Dec/Jan 2001-2002

Mouse Hunt Game - The Mailbox Kindergarten Dec/Jan 2001-2002

Mouse Patterns - The Mailbox Kindergarten June/July 2002

Bulletin Board: Quiet As A Mouse Behavior - The Mailbox Kindergarten June/July 2002

If You Take a Mouse To School - The Mailbox Kindergarten Aug/Sept 2003

Mouse Cookies - The Mailbox Kindergarten Aug/Sept 2003

Writing Mouse Poetry - Teacher's Helper Feb/Mar 1998

Mouse Pattern - The Mailbox Primary Oct/Nov 2001

Mouse Pattern - The Mailbox Primary Dec/Jan 2000 - 2001

Mouse Count - The Mailbox Kindergarten Aug/Sept 1997

A Mouse In My House - The Mailbox Kindergarten Dec/Jan 1997 - 1998

Mouse Paint - The Mailbox Kindergarten Dec/Jan 1998 - 1999

Mouse Paint - The Mailbox Kindergarten Aug/Sept 2001

Mouse Paint - The Mailbox Kindergarten Aug/Sept 2002

Mouse Paint - The Mailbox Kindergarten Aug/Sept 2003

Cat and Mouse In the Rain - The Mailbox Kindergarten Dec/Jan 1998 - 1999

Mousekin's Family - The Mailbox Kindergarten Dec/Jan 1998-1999

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Hungry Bear - The Mailbox Kindergarten Aug/Sept 1999

Mouse Views - What the Class Pet Saw - The Mailbox Kindergarten Aug/Sept 1999

Where Are You Going, Little Mouse? - The Mailbox Kindergarten June/July 2000

Whose Mouse Are You? - The Mailbox Kindergarten June/July 2000

Come Out and Play, Little Mouse - The Mailbox Kindergarten June/July 2000

Come Out and Play, Little Mouse - The Mailbox Kindergarten Oct/Nov 2002

Little Mouse's Big Valentine - The Mailbox Kindergarten Feb/Mar 2001

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse - The Mailbox Kindergarten Apr/May 2001

Woodrow, the White House Mouse - The Mailbox Kindergarten Feb/Mar 2002

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Hungry Bear - The Mailbox Primary Aug/Sept 1997

The Mouse and the Motorcycle - The Mailbox Primary June/July 1998

Mouse Tales - The Mailbox Primary Apr/May 1999

A Mouse Called Wolf - The Mailbox Primary Dec/Jan 2000 - 2001

House Mouse, Senate Mouse - The Mailbox Primary Apr/May 2002

Ralph S. Mouse - The Mailbox Primary Feb/Mar 2004

Links:

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Lesson Plans and Resources

http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Teachers/Literature/LMouse.html

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/if_you_give_a_mouse_a_cookie.html

Lesson: Give a Mouse a Cookie (Gr. 1 - 3)

http://ecedweb.unomaha.edu/lessons/mouse.htm

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (Gr. 1 - 4)

http://atozteacherstuff.com/lessons/mouse.shtml

TeacherView: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (Gr. 1)

http://www.eduplace.com/tview/pages/i/If_You_Give_a_Mouse_a_Cookie_Laura_Joffe_

Numeroff.html

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

http://www.dltk-kids.com/books/mousecookie.html

Reading Rainbow: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Family Activity

http://pbskids.org/readingrainbow/family/activities/activity97.html

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Program

http://sanmarinopl.org/camera/mouse.htm

Kidspired Tales 2002

http://www.northcanton.sparcc.org/~ptk1nc/kidspired2002/mouseexample.html

Sub Unit for If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

http://geocities.com/crgoudie/MouseCookie.html

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

http://teachingheart.net/mousecookie.html

Lion/Mouse headband (printable)

http://www.kizclub.com/craft/headband/Animal-Headband3.pdf

Mouse Activities

http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/pets-mouse.htm

Mice Theme

http://stepbystepcc.com/animals/mice.html

Mice

http://www.thebestkidsbooksite.com/thispartictopic.cfm?BookTopic=25

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie

http://www.dltk-teach.com/books/mousecookie.html

Mouse Coloring page

http://www.csberry.com/sketchs1/csNibblechez.gif

Cause and Effect Graphic Organizer

http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/worksheets/Cause%20and%20Effect.pdf

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie Dominoes

http://kidscrafts.suite101.com/article.cfm/give_a_mouse_a_cookie_dominoes

Mouse Alphabet Cards

http://kidscrafts.suite101.com/article.cfm/mouse_aphabet_cards

Count the Cookies Math Mat

http://kidscrafts.suite101.com/article.cfm/count_the_cookies_math_mat

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Shadow Match Game

http://kidscrafts.suite101.com/article.cfm/if_you_give_a_mouse_a_cookie_match

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Vocabulary Words

http://kidscrafts.suite101.com/article.cfm/if_you_give_a_mouse_a_cookie_words

If you give a moose a muffin,

chances are he'll want some jam ...

and another muffin ..

and another ...

Will it ever end?

Vocabulary for Thematic Word Wall

moose	muffin	house	blackberry jam	mother	store
muffin mix	sweater	door	buttons	needle	thread
sew	grandmother	puppet	mess	socks	puppet show
cardboard	paint	couch	antlers	sheet	bed
ghost	Halloween	Boo!	soap	clothesline	yard
blackberry bush	boy

Here's some of the words in the Word Wall pocketchart for both the Mouse and the Moose book. I use clipart from the 'net and print it in color onto cardstock. Then I cut it out and glue it to a sentence strip and add the word. These are also laminated for durability.

We've Got Mail!: The moose from Kohl's comes to visit! I put these stuffed visitors in our Reading Center and the students enjoy reading to them.

Counting:

Graphing: Give each student a taste test of 3 different kinds of muffins (blueberry, strawberry, chocolate chip, chocolate, bran, banana nut, apple). Let them graph which is their favorite. We used Post-It notes to create a bar graph. They wrote their name on their note and placed it in the appropriate place. The two colors depict the morning and the afternoon class.

Moose Antlers: Provide each student with a pair of antlers copied onto stiff brown paper (if you make them too big they're going to flop over). Have them cut them out and staple them to a brown strip of construction paper. Adjust it to fit their head and staple.

*Tip* Here's a tip I just read about somewhere this week: Instead of overlapping the construction paper strip and stapling it around their head, take a rubberband and slip one end of the strip through it and staple. Then slip the other end of the strip through the other side of the rubberband and staple. What this is doing is giving the strip some "ease" so that they can take it off and on without tearing it up. Picture a strip around the head that's been cut too short and has a rubberband to extend the strip.

Counting: Use a muffin pattern page and program muffins each with a number. Copy onto brown construction paper. Students cut out muffins and use blue paint and a Q-tip to add blueberries to the top of the muffin. Use the muffins for a bulletin board or something. Make a large muffin tin using aluminum foil and then add a large moose and "Marvelous Muffins" or something catchy. What about "Moose-lous Muffins!" :)

M is for Moose: Enlarge a moose onto posterboard. Color, cut out and laminate. Program cards with pictures, many beginning with the letter "m". Students sort pictures that begin with "m" onto the moose. You can also replace the picture cards with real items. M items: money, macaroni, Mickey Mouse, makeup, monster, mom, milk, muffin, moose, M&Ms, Milky Way, marker, mittens, mail, mouse, mayo.

Compare/Contrast: Use a Venn Diagram to compare/contrast If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and If You Give a Moose a Muffin.

Estimation: Give each student a blueberry muffin and let them estimate how many blueberries it might contain. Have them record their estimate on a class graph/chart. Then let them dig all the blueberries from their muffin. Add the actual number of blueberries to the chart as well. Who got the closest?

Name	Estimate	Actual
John	3	15
Carrie	45	22

If you choose, the students can post their own responses on the chart by writing them on small Post-It notes and just sticking them on.

Muffin Cut-outs: Muffin cut-outs can be used for many different skills activities. You can program them with dots/numbers, rhyming pictures, rhyming words, capital/lowercase letters, words to alphabetize, numbers and ABCs to sequence, colors/color words, pictures/beginning sounds, pictures/ending sounds, math fact/answer, synonyms, contractions, pictures/blends. If you cut each muffin in half, you can program each half with a word for students to form compound words, words with prefixes/suffixes.

Make the muffin cut-outs in different colors and you can use them for practicing ordinals. Line them up in a pocketchart and let the students identify which color is first, second, etc.

Word Families: Use the format of the Word Family activity above in If You Give a Mouse a Cookie but change it to match If You Give a Moose a Muffin. Copy several moose on brown construction paper and program each with a word family. Put words on muffin cut-outs and students will sort the words onto the correct moose.

Rhyming Words: Using a cute moose graphic, copy several onto brown construction paper. On each antler write a word or glue a picture of things that rhyme (one antler: hat, other antler: cat). Now cut the antlers off the moose. Laminate. Students will place the antlers on the moose with rhyming words or pictures.

**You can use this format for any matching type activity. (see list above under Muffin Cut-outs)

Story Problems: Make a plate math mat for each student. Provide them with several small muffin cut-outs. As you read a story problem to the class, the students add or subtract muffins on their plate. You can see at a glance who has a grasp of the concept.

You could also make muffin math mats and let them add/subtract real chocolate chips or pretend chocolate chips (brown buttons) or blueberries (blue buttons).

Puppets: Provide a sock for each student to create their own puppet. Model creating one with them before turning them loose, but then let them go and see what they create.

Puppet Show: After making the puppets, let each student don their moose antlers and put on a puppet show. You can use two or three file folders stapled together to create a l_l for them to get behind. Set the l_l on a table. If you have the space and the time, you could also give your students large pieces of cardboard and paint and let them create background scenery similar to the one in the book.

Dozen: Use the picture in the book of the two muffin tins to discuss a dozen.

Story Props: Lakeshore sells the Big Book and the accompanying story props. However, you'll have to supplement the set, because for some reason they did not provide all the props needed.

Culminating Activity: Buy mixes for the class' favorite kind of muffin (use results from taste testing graph) and let students mix and bake them. If you need to, you can purchase muffin pans for the microwave. Of course, if you give them a muffin, you must give them blackberry jam to go with it. Yuck! :) You might want to let them vote on the type of jam or provide several different kinds ... and then you can graph their favorite!

Resources:

If You Give A Mouse a Cookie - The Mailbox K-1 Oct/Nov 2005

Laura Numeroff - The Mailbox Kindergarten Oct/Nov 1999

The Mailbox Kindergarten Aug/Sept 2001

Muffin pattern - The Mailbox Kindergarten Dec/Jan 2002 - 2003

Moose pattern - The Mailbox Kindergarten Oct/Nov 2000

Uses for Mooses and Other Popular Pets - The Mailbox Primary Apr/May 1998

Teacher's Helper Oct/Nov 2001

- Story Sequencing

- Story Recall

- Matching glad/sad

- Go Togethers