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Mouse Count, by Ellen Stoll Walsh

What do snakes eat for dinner? Mice! This simple story is about a snake who is gathering mice for his dinner but will the mice become his supper? Read and count your way through this cute story.

Materials

  • 10 simple house shapes numbered 1-10 or 1-5
  • Mouse shape
  • Ahead of time, paint 2 stones (small enough to fit in their hand) per child in a tan type color
  • Bag of pompoms
  • Pictures of mice
  • Rhyming cards
  • Dice
  • Basic shapes cut from a manilla folder (see resources)
  • Snake picture

Vocabulary

Before reading the Story

Hold up the cover and ask the children if they know what animals are in the story today? Read the title and have the children count the mice with you. Tell them that today is going to be a number day. Count to 10 and back again holding up the appropriate fingers as you count. Encourage the children to join in.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; develops increasing ability to count in sequence to 10 and beyond.

Reading the Story

On the first page where the mice are careful watching for snakes, ask the children why the mice needed to be careful? Ask them what they think is going to happen in the story, will the mice be eaten? Let’s find out. Continue to read.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story.

Have the children count along with you. Use the picture of the mouse and tape to the wall or flannel board for the children to help count.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to make one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects.

After Reading the Story

Put your houses labeled 1-10 or 1-5 in order on the floor where the children can see. Have one child close their eyes and put the mouse under one of the houses. The child then opens his eyes and must guess which house the mouse is under using their words. Help them count the houses if they do not know the numbers. Give each child 3 tries. Then the child who hid their eyes is the next person to hide the mouse and another child guesses. Continue until everyone who wants a turn gets one.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to associate number concepts, vocabulary, quantities, and written numerals in meaningful ways.

Discovery

Print out the pictures of the mice in similar size. Cut off each mouse’s head. Put the bodies in one pile and the heads in another. Challenge the children to match the correct head to it’s body.

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; progresses in ability to put together and take shapes apart.

Music and Movement

Have the children take turns showing an exercise (jumping jacks, hopping on one foot, touching toes). Do these to the count of ten.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to make one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects.

Ask them to pretend that they are a snake and do the following movements; Can you make your body a curled shape? Can you stretch your body out long? Can you wiggle only your one foot? Can you stretch one part of your body and curl another? Can you twist your body all around? Can you move only your head? Can you slither on the ground like a snake? Can you twist more than one body part?

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; understands increasingly complex and varied vocabulary. AND Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; participates actively in games, outdoor play, and other forms of exercise that enhance physical fitness.

Recite the following poem and have the children act out. I’m Being Swallowed by a Boa Constrictor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd0cX1dogtk

Blocks

Cut out 5-10 snakes and add them to the block center. Ask the children if they can measure how long each block or block structure is using the snakes as the measuring device.

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; shows progress ub using standard and non-standard measures for length and area of objects.

Art

Draw the basic mouse shapes onto a manilla folder and cut out. The children can then trace around the shapes and cut them out with scissors and put together to make a mouse.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads, and using scissors.

Library and Writing

Put the animal and their rhyming word cards out for the children to match.

Literacy/Phonological Awareness; progresses in recognizing matching sounds and rhymes in familiar words, games, songs, stories, and poems.

Sand and Water

Fill the table with pompoms today. Give the children bowls or cups marked with the colors of the pompoms on the outside. Encourage the children to sort the pom poms into the correct cup using tongs, tweezers, or chopsticks. Which cup has the most, least?

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to use language to compare numbers of objects with terms such as more, less, greater than, fewer, equal to. AND Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills;develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer.

Dramatic Play

If you have a doll house add several little toy mice (found in cat toy department) instead of people today.

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; participates in a variety of play activities that becomes more extended and complex.

Cut out mouse ears from construction paper and attach to sentence strips that the children can wear on their heads and pretend to be mice today. Add large boxes if you have them and the children can pretend that they are theri mouse house.

Math and Manipulatives

Use the mouse shape and make 10 in each of several colors. The children take turns rolling the dice and collecting that many mice. After each turn, they count the number of mice in their pile. When all the mice are collected, the child with the most mice wins.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; develops increased abilities to combine, separate, and name “how many” concrete objects.

Outdoor Play

If possible ahead of time take your tan painted rocks and hide-scatter them about the playground. If you cannot do ahead of time, nonchalantly scatter them while the children are busy playing. Gather the children and show them one of the rocks. Tell them that you are pretending that it is a mouse. Explain that you saw many mice on the playground. Let’s pretend to be snakes and look for our supper. Have the children search the playground for tan rocks/mice. They can then bring them to you and count them out loud. (Riley, how many mice did you find? Who found more? Who found the most?).

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to use language to compare numbers of objects with terms such as more, less, greater than, fewer, equal to. AND Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; grows in abilities to persist in and complete a variety of tasks, activities, projects, and experiences.

Transitions

Play 1,2,3 How Many Do You See? As you go to the next activity. Make two fists with your hands. Knock them together and say, 1-2-3 how many do you see? On the word ‘see’ hold up 0-10 fingers and ask a child to tell you how many there are. Continue until all the children have had a turn.

Mathematics/Number & operations; demonstrates increasing interest and awareness if numbers and counting as a means for solving problems and determining quantity.

Resources

From Jennifer Miller website

Rhyming word cards

A Cake All For Me!, by Karen Magnuson Beil

Pig is making a cake, all for himself but just as he is about to eat it some friends stop by. Will he share his cake with his friends? Count along to find the answer.

Materials

  • White cake mix
  • Bag of chocolate chips
  • Assorted colors of food coloring
  • A plastic spoon and cup for each child
  • Flour sifters and egg whips
  • Graters and a bag of carrots
  • 3 empty one gallon milk jugs and cups for pouring and scooping.
  • An index card for each child with their name printed on it.

Vocabulary

  • Share (to let somebody use something, to give part of what you have to someone else)

Before Reading the Story

Ask the children if they know what it means to share. Give examples of how you have seen the children share among themselves over the last day or two (I remember yesterday when Roger shared his markers with Kerry, that was being a good friend. I liked when I saw Sean let Alison have a turn on the bike).

Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; shows increasing abilities to use compromise and discussion in working, playing, and resolving conflicts with peers.

Reading the Story

Practice reading the story beforehand so that you have a nice rhythm as this is written in poem form. Point out some of the actions as you read. Also stop after 1,2, get out the moo. Ask the children if they think they know what ‘moo’ means in the story.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; shows growing interest and involvement in listening to and discussing a variety of fiction and non-fiction, and poetry.

After Reading the Story

Ask the children if Pig was a good friend, why? Talk about the importance of sharing. Tell the children sometimes it is hard to share but when you do it lets another person know you are friends.

Social & Emotional Development/Social Relationships; shows progress in developing friendships with peers.

Discovery

Make up the white cake mix according to directions. Scoop it into equal portions to make one plastic cup per child. Ask each child what color cake they would like to make. Drop the appropriate food coloring into their mix and give them a spoon to mix well. Have each child count out 5-10 chocolate chips and drop them into their batter. Continue to mix. Have a cupcake pan/s ready. The children (you may have to help) scoop their batter into a cupcake pan to make a class cake. Cook and cool before eating. If you like you can spread with a thin layer of cool whip as frosting. Yummy

Mathematics/Numbers & Operations; develops increasing ability to count in sequence to 10 and beyond.   

Music and Movement

Sing 1 Little 2 Little 3 Little children (sung to 1 Little 2 Little 3 Little Indians)

1 little 2 little 3 little children
4 little 5 little 6 little children
7 little 8 little 9 little children
10 children baking a cake! Yum!

Then count down 10-1 eating the cake! Yum!

Hold up fingers as you sing the numbers.  Mathematics/Numbers & Operations; begins to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and beginning to match sets.

Do Patty Cake Patty Cake with the children but change out the letter to match children’s names and see if they can fill in the name where you would have said “For baby and me”.   With children who are just learning to recognize letters, make the letter sound also so the children can hear the letter sound before they guess.

Literacy/Phonological Awareness; associates sounds with written words, such as awareness that different words begin with the same sound.

Blocks

Bring in a pan from the dramatic center and encourage the children to make a stove/oven that they can bake a cake in.

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem-Solving; develops increasing ability to find more than one solution to a question, task, or problem.

Art

Get out the play dough and your cookie cutters to pretend making cookies. Put out pieces of cardboard to put the cookies on so they can go in the oven.

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming different roles in dramatic play situations.

Sand and Water

Put sifters in to the table with sand. Also egg whips, measuring cups, and several bowls.  Encourage the children to pretend to be bakers making a cake.

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming different roles in dramatic play situations.

Library and Writing

Ask the children if they have a favorite recipe. Ask them how it is made, dictate their directions onto a piece of paper. They can then go through magazines to see if they can find their favorite food. Let them cut it out and glue it to their recipe.

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; progresses in abilities to initiate and respond appropriately in conversation and discussions with peers and adults.  AND Literacy/Early Writing; begins to represent stories and experiences through pictures, dictation, and play.

Dramatic Play

Encourage the children to pretend to bake or cook a yummy treat. Add the book to the center as a reference guide. Or add a cookbook that has many pictures of food.

Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; develops increasing abilities to give and take in interactions; to take turns in games and using materials; and to interact without being overly submissive or directive.

Math and Manipulatives

Bring in several graters and a bag of carrots for the children to try their hand at grating.  Remind them to be careful to not grate too close to the end or they might scrape their knuckles.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in eye-hand coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing patterns and shapes, stringing beads, and using scissors.  AND Approaches to Learning/Engagement & Persistence; shows growing capacity to maintain concentration over time on a task, question, set of directions or interactions, despite distractions or interruptions.

Outdoor play

Put the empty milk jugs into the sand box along with a variety of cups to scoop and pour. Challenge the children to pour the sand into the jugs and count how many scoops it took ( 16 cups=gallon, 8 pints=gallon)

Mathematics/Number & operations; demonstrates increasing interest and awareness of numbers and counting as a means for solving problems and determining quantity.

Transitions

Write each child’s name on an index card.  Tape the index cards onto the wall in front where the children can clearly see the names.  Tell the children that you are going to pretend that this is a delicious cake.  Now teach your children the following poem;  Down around the corner at the bakery shop, there was a beautiful cake with icing on top.  Along came (child’s name) all alone, and she took a piece of cake and then went home.  The child then comes up and finds their name among the names hanging on the wall.

Literacy/Print awareness; recognizes a word as a unit of print, or awareness that letters are grouped together to form words, and words are separated by spaces.

Dear Parent- Today we read a story about a pig who got to bake a cake.  Find a time this week when your child can help cook something in the kitchen.  It can be as simple as pouring milk into cereal or as complicated as baking and frosting a cake. Not only is it fun but following a recipe requires math skills and watching a cake rise in the oven involves science!

A Chair for My Mother, by Vera B. Williams

Imagine how you would feel if your home caught on fire! This is the story of a girl named Rosa and her family that this happened to. Her friends and neighbors all pitch in to help her family but still there was something missing. Through hard savings they finally had the money for that one last item they dreamed about; a chair for her Mother.

Materials

  • 5-10 pennies for each child
  • Box of salt
  • Jar of vinegar
  • A variety of real or play coins

Vocabulary

  • Tips (a gift of money for a job well done)
  • Spoiled (to be ruined)
  • Sofa (another name for couch or davenport)

Before Reading the Story

Bring a chair to the rug to read from today. Ask the children if they have ever lost something that was really special to them. Let them talk about how they felt (sad, angry). Tell the children that our story today is about a family that lost everything, all their clothes and toys and furniture because a big fire burned it all up. Give the children time to talk about any fire experience that they may have had. Hold up the back of the book with the picture of the chair and introduce the story.

Social & Emotional Development/Social Relationships; progresses in responding sympathetically to peers who are in need, upset, hurt, or angry; and in expressing empathy or caring for others. AND Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other varied purposes.

Reading the Story

Read the story using emotion.

After Reading the Story

Turn to the page where the neighbors were bringing Rosa’s family things for their new house. Ask the children if they thought their friends and neighbors were being kind? Ask the children what they would have given to Rosa’s family? Take a few minutes and talk about fire and fire safety. What should you do if your house catches on fire (get out, call 911, find your parent, call “help,help,help” if you are inside, get down low to the floor)

Social & Emotional Development/Social Relationships; progresses in responding sympathetically to peers who are in need, upset, hurt, or angry; and in expressing empathy or caring for others.  AND Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; builds awareness and ability to follow basic health and safety rules such as fire safety, traffic, and pedestrian safety; and responding appropriately to potentially harmful objects, substances, and activities.

Discovery

Give each child 5-10 pennies. Ask them to sort them by shiny pennies and not shiny pennies. Ask them to count how many shiny pennies they have, how many not shiny, how many total, Let the children mix a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of vinegar, and 5 teaspoons of water into a small bowl. Put a couple pennies into the bowl and stir. Take the pennies out and wipe dry with a paper towel. The mixture helps remove the tarnish and make the pennies shiny. When they are finished have them put their pennies into a jar like Rosa and her family did in the story.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; develops increased abilities to combine, separate, and name “how many” concrete objects.  AND Science/Scientific Knowledge & Skills; begins to use senses and a variety of tools and measuring devices to gather information, investigate materials, and observe processes and relationships.

Music and Movement

Teach the children the song/chant I’ve Got a Penny sung to the chorus of Playground in my Mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slp69VwEj4w

I’ve got a penny, I’ve got a penny
I’ve got a penny shiny and new.
I’m gonna buy all kinds of candy
That’s what I’m gonna do.

Put a variety of coins in a bag. Take turns picking out and naming the coin. Replace the word penny with the appropriate coin name. Let the child then decide what they are going to buy (Kerry’s gonna buy all kinds of headbands, that’s what she’s gonna do).

Language Development/Listening and Understanding; demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand conversations, stories, songs, and poems.

Blocks

Put fire trucks into the center. Encourage the children to build houses and act out being fire persons.   For older children ask them if they can build a fire house.  Can they include a roof?

Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; approaches tasks and activities with increased flexibility, imagination, and inventiveness.  AND Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads,and using scissors.

Art

Make a group chair collage. Have the children go through magazines and furniture ads and cut out pictures of chairs. When you finish the collage, the children can tell which chair is their favorite and write their name beside.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads,and using scissors.

Sand and Water

Water play today.  Add turkey baster, hosing, and funnels.

Social & Emotional Development/Self Control; demonstrates increasing capacity to follow rules and routines and use materials purposefully, safely, and respectfully.

Library and Writing

Remind the children that Rosa was saving to buy a chair for her mother.  Ask the children to draw a picture of what they would buy their Mom if they had $100.00. Write their response under their picture. ‘I would buy a ______for my Mother.’

Literacy/Early Writing; begins to represent stories and experiences through pictures, dictation, and in play.

Dramatic Play

Add play money and cash register.   Remind the children that Rosa’s Mom was a waitress at a restaurant.  Encourage the children to pretend to play restaurant taking turns being the waitress, the cook, and the customers.  Add a cash register and pretend money along with a real or home-made menu.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families and Communities; develops a growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them.

Math and Manipulatives

In a clean egg carton, glue 2 pennies head/tail, 2 nickels head/tail, 2 dimes head/tail, and 2 quarters head/tail side by side. Use the four extra egg cups to hold a variety of coins. Explain that the glued ones show the front and back of each coin. Have the children sort the loose coins into the appropriate coin cup (it does not matter if it’s heads/tails). Make sure they wash their hands afterwards as money is known to be dirty.

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; shows growth in matching, sorting, putting in a series, and regrouping objects according to one or two attributes such as color, shape, or size.

Outdoor Play

Teach the children how to play Categories. Teacher picks a category (things in your kitchen, kinds of clothes, fruits).   You can either toss a bean bag to a child who then must answer or if you have a slide, the child must answer before he/she can go down the slide.

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem-Solving; develops increasing ability to find  more than one solution to a question, task, or problem.

Transitions

Have the children sit in a circle.  In the center of the circle put a chair.  Give each child a block and take turns asking them to put them on, under, beside, in front, behind, near, and far from the chair.  Each child can be given one or two directions before they head off to the next activity.

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; builds an increasing understanding of directionality, order, and positions of objects, and words such as up, down, over, under, top, bottom, inside, outside, in front behind.

Dear Parents- Today we read a story about a family whose household belongings burnt in a fire.  Although this might be a subject that is a little scary to talk about with your child, it is important.  Show your child how to dial 911 (do not really call).  Talk about what to do and where to go if there is ever a family emergency and you get separated (go to the neighbors house, the mailbox, the lamp post at the end of the block).  It is important that children learn what you want them to do when there is not an emergency going on.  Talk to them calmly and answer all their questions.  Who knows, this may one day save yours or their life.