Activities

Literacy Activity: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Children will:

• Develop listening skills.
• Learn the elements of a circle story.
• Retell a story.

 

Materials

Book: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (If You Give...) by Laura Numeroff

 

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Book description:

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff tells a story of what happens to a boy who gives a mouse a cookie. The boy soon realises that the mouse will want more than just a cookie. To go with the cookie, the mouse wants a glass of milk, then a straw, then a napkin, then a mirror, a pair of scissors, and so the list goes on and on.

Directions:

Read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff to your child. Talk with your child how If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is a circle story because each event is dependent on the previous event and the story could continue endlessly. Talk about how each event in the story leads to the next event. For example, if you give a mouse a cookie, then the mouse wants a glass of milk. If you give a mouse a glass of milk, then the mouse wants a straw. And so on.

Extension:

Inside a large plastic bag, the “cookie jar,” provide the following items: a bag of mini cookies, a small, empty milk carton, a straw, a napkin, 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 box of crayons or a note pad, a pen, and an empty tape dispenser. Model how to use the props to retell the story. Then let your child practice retelling the story.

Story Sequencing

Use story picture to let children re-tell the story.