M is for Mouse & Moose- Books

This is a bit of a belated post, but I thought I'd share what we read aloud last week for Read Aloud Thursday. We learned about mice and moose last week as part of our "m" unit.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff

I don't think I know a toddler that doesn't enjoy this book. It's a modern day classic about a little boy who gives a mouse a cookie. That cookie leads to the mouse asking for other things which eventually lead up to the mouse asking for another cookie. Silly, yes. Fun, definitely. Jonathan really liked this one!

Making Learning Fun has some great printables to go along with this book!

Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh

Jonathan just loved this classic concept book. It's about three white mice who discover red, yellow, and blue paint. Lots of fun painting and mixing colors ensues. Jonathan really started to grasp the concept of how secondary colors are formed. It's a very fun book for toddlers and preschoolers! We also read Mouse Count and Mouse Shapes, which were also very enjoyable.

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear by Audrey and Don Wood

This gorgeously illustrated book captured Jonathan's attention. It's about a little strawberry-loving mouse who will do anything to save his strawberry from the big hungry bear- including sharing it with the reader! It's clever, humorous, and sure to please a toddler or preschooler.

If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff

This book is a sequel to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. It's another story about what follows after one gives a moose a muffin. The moose of course wants jam which leads to more adventures which lead back to more muffins. It's another silly gem that we enjoyed very much.

Making Learning Fun also has printables for this story.

Moose, of Course! by Lynn Plourde

My parents gave us this book after their annual trip to Maine one year. It's about a little boy who is determined to see some moose. Everyone keeps telling him to "do nuthin'" but the boy comes up with more and more elaborate schemes to try to find a moose. Finally, the boy gets trapped by one of his own devices and ends up having time on his hands to find the moose he was looking for. It's a silly tongue twister that teaches the benefits of patience.


So that's what we read together last week! I'm sharing this at these linky parties.

Tot School: M is for Mouse (31 Months)

Jonathan is 31 Months Old

This week was a little slower, but we still had lots of fun! We finished up the letter M by talking about mice and other related "m" words. 

Bible

This is the most important part of our week-- I'm trying to fit in our Bible story and crafts before I fit in any letter of the week activities. This week, we learned about the Exodus and God giving manna in the wilderness. I'll share the specifics of the lesson on Weds but we did a couple activities based on the stories:

We did a papercraft of Moses parting the Red Sea

We made manna cookies:

Check back in on Wednesday for our next Kids in the Word post!

Stories, Nursery Rhymes & Read Alouds: 

Our bookshelf for the week

I haven't written up our thoughts on the books we read this week, but here are some highlights:

• Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh and its sequels: Mouse Shapes and Mouse Count. Jonathan loved these books, but Mouse Paint was his favorite!
• Hickory Dickory Dock-- we recited this nursery rhyme several times.
• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and If You Give a Moose a Muffin-- children's classics that Jonathan requested several times this week. :)

Gross Motor Skills 

We had another beautiful week! We spent time outside playing golf, catch, soccer and spending time with friends who came to play. 

We also went to our local forest preserve and took a nice walk (about a mile) had a picnic by the pond. Jonathan loved this. (Grace did too!)

Larry the Cucumber went everywhere with us this week. 

It ended up being a little nature study-- we saw geese, fish, ducks, seagulls, birds, and butterflies! Jonathan and I fed the ducks (and the fish) and he had so much fun doing this! 

Art 

In addition to our Moses craft, we painted with watercolors this week:  

And we made playdough mice using cookie cutters: 

And we mixed playdough to make new colors: orange, green and purple! (as in Mouse Paint)

And made mouse houses out of shapes (like Mouse Shape)

And then made a snake (like Mouse Count):

Science 

We made Magic Muck this week. We made it in the secondary colors, once again mixing primary colors to see the colors they made. 

The recipe was from a book called The Ultimate Book of Kid Concoctions:

3/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup water
food coloring

1. Mix water and food coloring together.
2. Slowly add cornstarch- do not stir!
3. Let stand for 2-3 minutes.
4. Pick up a handful and squeeze it until it forms a hard ball.

Magic Muck turns from a solid to a liquid and back again. We had a lot of fun mixing it up. Jonathan enjoyed playing with it, but didn't fully understand the whole solid/liquid thing. We may pull this out another time.


So that's what Jonathan and I did this past week. I'm linking up to these linky parties. Head on over to get more fun ideas for your toddlers and preschoolers!