The following post contains affiliate links. All of the activities listed can be purchased from the following link:
Whether you are a teacher in a school or you are a parent providing activities for your child, literature is easily integrated into all areas of learning. The book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff offers many opportunities to explore math, science, literacy, and motor skills. The book can be purchased at the following affiliate link: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
This book offers children to explore cause and effect as the mouse moves from one thing to the next. As the children become more familiar with the rhythm of the story, you can move on to helping the children create their own versions. An understanding of cause and effect helps children to see relationships between two events. It shows children that we all have an effect on others and our environment. Children are constantly receiving if/then scenarios throughout the day. “If you don’t put on your gloves, then your hands will be cold.” “If you step on the bug, then we will have less flowers.” “If you take his toys, then he will cry.” Children need repetition for skills to develop pathways in the brain. The more times children repeat skills, the stronger the pathway becomes. One way to use this book to further a child’s ability to use cause and effect, is to allow the children to create their own If/Then statements. The following cards help children develop the relationship between two events or two items. The cards pose the question, “If you give a mouse a car, then he will???” Children will begin to use conditional thinking as they decide what the mouse would do with a car. These cards can be purchased at the following link:
The book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie provided the basis for many math skills. Activities that involve counting cookies, matching recipe cards, and putting halves of cookies together easily tie skills to literature children are familiar with. The following activities are available to purchase from the following links:
Use these mats for children to practice number recognition, counting, and cardinality. Use cookie cereal, printed cookies, or play dough to place on the plates for the mouse to eat!
Print, laminate, and cut! Children will use math skills to match the halves of cookies. These cookies can be used to practice fourths easily!
This activity provides a plate mat, 8 recipe cards to feed the mouse, and 6 cookies and milk cards. Children will follow the recipe on the cards to feed the mouse what he is asking to be fed. This activity uses one-to-one correspondence among other math skills.
Literacy skills are also being developed in the previous activities. Children are beginning to see themselves as readers as they follow the recipe cards to feed the mouse. Children should be offered a variety of materials to read and be read from. As children become preschool age, they develop further receptive English language skills. One of these skills is phonological awareness and phonics. Phonological awareness allows one to discriminate, remember, and manipulate sounds at the sentence, word, syllable level. Phonics is the matching of sounds to the written letter or grouping of letters. Preschool children begin to hear familiar sounds especially at the beginning of words. The following activity can be purchased from this link:
Children will use this printable to match letters, letter sounds, and beginning sounds of words. Print, cut, and let the children practice the letters of the alphabet with this activity!
A full weekly lesson plan along with these FREE activities are available to download at the following links:
All areas of development are developed through the use of this lesson plan. In addition to the above activities, 5 more activities that are connected to the story are provided. You will learn how to paint with a mop, paint with straws, and create a counting chocolate chip cookie with your children.
An excellent experience for all children is baking! This theme provides the perfect opportunity to make chocolate chip cookies. An excellent recipe can be found at the following link:
https://life-in-the-lofthouse.com/chocolate-chip-pudding-cookies-2/
All of these activities and lesson plan are bundled together for a nominal fee:
Whenever you can tie activities to literature, it is a positive experience for children.