If you GIve a Mouse a Cookie Activities

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

The link above is a site that has fun and inventive excersizes and activies created for the Preschool and Kindergarten grade levels. The website includes math games, literacy projects, and a "create a snack" activity all centered on the story, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Even though the excersizes on the internet site were originally created for a "family night", the games may also be utilized in the classroom. My three favorite activities were"Create a Snack", "Mouse ABC Tic Tac Toe", and "Cookie Jar Math".

In my Kindergarten classroom, one week out of the year would be designated If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Week.As a teacher, I would utilize several of the activies in my curriculum for the week. At the first of the week, I would actually read the story to my class. Located towards the front of the classroom would be a jar of cookies. Without counting, my students would estimate how many cookies were in the jar.This activity would undoubedly help the children get used to the ideas of estimation and probability. As a treat, each child would receive a cookie from the jar.

"Mouse ABC Tic Tac Toe" and "Cookie Jar Math" would be conducted on different days of the week. The "Mouse ABC Tic Tac Toe" activitiy helps children to identify the sounds of their letters and to recognize the items that begin with the particular letter. The "Cookie Jar Math" activity, on the other hand, helps students to learn the basics and fundamentals of addition and subtraction through visualization. The details of these two activities are found on the website.

Lastly at the end of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Week, I would conduct the "Create a Snack" excersize. The mystery snack would be a mouse cracker made of Ritz crackers (ears), a Town House cracker (face), a chocolate chip (nose). I would add to the mouse's face whiskers by cuting tiny pieces of licorice. I would take students in groups of 5 and have each child help me make these delicious treats! Yum Yum!