READING ADVENTURE TREASURE CHEST KIT #39
MICE AND OTHER LITTLE CREATURES UNDER FOOT

This Reading Adventure Treasure Chest Kit has been assembled to provide a thematic list of storytime materials for use by enhanced members and their patrons.  The kit is geared toward the preschool age group yet is flexible enough to capture the interest of toddlers and early school age children.  The Activity Ideas are designed to be aids to use the materials listed in the kits.

If you would like more information concerning this project, contact SERLS via e-mail at dirserls@oplin.org.org.

Material Type	Title	Author
BOOK	Baby's Book Of Nature	ROGER PRIDDY
BOOK	Does A Mouse Have A House	ANNE MIRANDA
BOOK	The Dream Mouse	BARBARA JUSTER ESBENSEN
BOOK	If You Give A Mouse A Cookie	LAURA JOFFE NUMEROFF
BOOK	Inside A Barn In The Country	ALYSSA SATIN CAPUCILLI
BOOK	Look Out, Patrick!	PAUL GERAGHTY
BOOK	Lunch	DENISE FLEMING
BOOK	Mole's Hill	LOIS EHLERT
BOOK	Moon Rope	LOIS EHLERT
BOOK	Mouse	SARA BONNETT STEIN
BOOK	Mouse TV	MATT NOVAK
BOOK	Night-Time Animals: Eyeopeners	ANGELA ROYSTON
BOOK	Otter's Under Water	JIM ARNOSKY
BOOK	Outside Inside	CAROLYN CRIMI
BOOK	Ruby	MICHAEL EMBERLEY
BOOK	Sophie And Lou	PETRA MATHERS
BOOK	A Starlit Somersault Downhill	NANCY WILLARD
BOOK	The Story Of The Jumping Mouse	JOHN STEPTOE
BOOK	This Old House	KAREN ACKERMAN
BOOK	Three Billy Goats Gruff	TED DEWAN
BOOK	Under The Ground: A First Discovery Book	GALLIMARD JEUNESSE
BOOK	Under The Sun And The Moon And Other Poems	MARGARET WISE BROWN
BOOK	Up, Up and Away	RUTH HELLER
BOARD BOOK	Hide-And-Seek Bunnies	JUDITH MOFFATT
BIG BOOK	The Three Billy Goats Gruff	JANET STEVENS
RESOURCE BOOK	Singing Bee! A Collection of Favorite Children's Songs	JANE HART
BOOK & TAPE	Ants Underground	BILL MARTIN
CASSETTE	Wee Sing Nursery Rhymes And Lullabies (packaged with book)	PAMELA CONN BEALL
VHS	The Mole And The Chewing Gum
PUPPET	Mouse Puppet

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ACTIVITY IDEAS AND FINGERPLAYS

Share the book Under The Ground. Then make pretend underground tunnels with large boxes. Pretend that the children are earthworms crawling underground and sing this song:
The wiggly wiggly worms,
The wiggly wiggly worms,
The wiggly wiggly worms
Are crawling underground.

Use the Wee Sing Nursery Rhymes And Lullabies cassette tape to sing and act out "Hickory Dickory Dock."

Play a "Three Blind Mice Game." Children form a circle with one in the center (farmer's wife). As children dance and sing around, the farmer's wife tries to catch one person (mouse) who will become the next farmer's wife:
Three blind mice!
See how they run!
They all ran after the farmer's wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife.
Did you ever see such a sight in your life
As three blind mice?

Share the picture book Mouse by Sara Bonnett Stein. Then read If You Give A Mouse A Cookie. Ask these questions "If you give a mouse a crayon, what would he draw?" "If you give a mouse a book, what would his favorite story be?" Draw whiskers on children with non-toxic makeup. Share cheese and cracker snacks.

An Ant Hill
Here's the ant hill, with no ants about
(Make fist)
And I say, little ants, won't you please come out?
(Look at fist)
Out they come trooping in answer to my call.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and that's all.
(Raise and count fingers)

Five Little Mice
Five little mice came out to play,
(Fingers of right hand run forward)
Gather crumbs along the way.
(Fingers stop once in a while then continue to move)
Out comes a pussy cat,
(Close three middle fingers of left hand; raise thumb and little fingers for ears)
Sleek and fat.
Four little mice went scampering back.
(Tuck thumb of right hand under and let other 4 fingers run back)

Where Are the Baby Mice?
Where Are the baby Mice?
(Make fist and place behind back)
"Squeak, squeak, squeak!"
I cannot see them,
Peek, peek, peek.
Here they come out of their hole in the wall.
(Show fist and extend it)
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
(Show one finger at a time)
And that's

all!

Ask your local children's librarian about more fingerplays, activities and books such as these recommended titles:

• I Love You Mouse by John Graham. Portrays friendship with a mouse.
• The Tale Of Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter. Two mice wreak havoc in a doll house.
• The Tale Of Mrs. Tittle-Mouse. Adventures of a lady fieldmouse.