An Old Favorite...

The Gist: A boy takes a mouse to school.

Why I like it:

• It's another fun book in a collection of "If you..." books.
• This book has more episodes than the previous books: "If you give a pig a pancake, she'll want some syrup to go with it." 
• I, along with my students, enjoy this simple "cause and effect" story line.
• The illustrator, Felicia Bond, draws an adorable mouse, doing adorable humanistic things, like putting on tiny bib overhauls, drawing on the blackboard, sniffling, etc.
• The mouse and his auburn-haired boy sidekick are very endearing.

Story Telling Tips:

Make sequencing manipulatives for the story by printing off my master, laminating the sheets and then cutting them out. Pass them out to your students.

Make a blue jean cup to store the pieces in by running off a copy of the blue jeans on blue construction paper. 

Cut out the jeans and place them on the front of a clear plastic cup using several glue dots.  Cut out two 8 1/2 inch strips of blue construction paper and tape them to the back of the blue jeans. 

Loop the "jean straps" over the cup and fasten them to the back of the cup with glue dots. Put 2 white reinforcement holes on the front of the jeans to look like buttons.

If you wanted to make a cute treat as a surprise for your students, these would make darling cups for them.  Fill a snack Baggie with miniature chocolate chip cookies, or a medium baggie with one large cookie and then tuck it in the cup. 

Students can make their own blue jeans and then take this home at the end of the day with their mouse (art project) tucked in the cup as well. 

You could also read If You Give A Mouse A Cookie and compare both stories.  If you do read both stories, you may want to add a math extension and graph which book your students liked the best. 

When you pass the manipulatives out to your students and you come to that particular item in the story, where the mouse would want that "thing",  the child holding that piece puts the item on your white or flannel board. 

Magic Trick:

I put a pink pom pom, a scrap of brown paper, a wiggle eye and a piece of brown yarn into my change bag.  The children clap their hands 3 times and say: "If you take a mouse to school..."

I produce a paper mouse.  I ask my students if they would like to make one.  Of course they say "Yes!" They then transition to their desks and make a mouse.

Art Project:  Paper Pom Pom Mouse:

Run off the mouse on brown construction paper. Fold the paper in half.  Remind students to keep their paper FOLDED.  When they open it up their paper will be heart-shaped because they LOVE story time. 

There is a message inside for their parents to read.  Students sign the card and re-fold it, turning it into a mouse by adding a pom pom nose, wiggle eye, ears and yarn tail.

Have your students fill in the blanks and illustrate their page.  Collect the pages, collate your class book and then read it to your class. Set it in your class library so that students can read it whenever they wish.

The "Mice" activities will remain FREE for the month of September 2011. Click on the link to print them; after September they can be purchased for only .59 cents under Mice Activities.

 Etc.:

I teach around several themes for September:

Click on each link for a list of my favorite BACK-TO-SCHOOL themed books,  Bibliography for MORE Back-To-School books,  TRAIN books,  DINOSAUR books, APPLE books, and MONKEY books.

You can also click on the links to view/print our FREE Easy Readers this month:  My September Senses,  My Spatial Direction Bus Booklet, & The Students On the Bus. 

To get my parents involved in reading to their children, I have a RAH-RAH program. It stands for "Read At Home." Click on the link for directions, poster, bookmarks, certificate, reading logs and a letter home.

Each day we have a WOW Day. It stands for Wonderful Outstanding Word of the day.

It helps build my students' vocabulary. Click on the link for a mini-poster You can also get a mini-poster of  ZIPPY to remind your  students that it's time for reading and you need a Quiet Zone.

Whatever you're reading this month, I hope you and your students are able to "fall" into lots of good books!

READ on!