If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Summary

One of my very favorite children's books is If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Not only is the story fun and entertaining, but the illustrations are incredibly detailed, full of expression, and adorable. The author writes about a little mouse, clad in overalls and his backpack, who is going for a walk when he sees a young boy eating cookies on a rock outside of his house. The boy offers the mouse a cookie which marks the beginning of a journey through the boy's house led by the mouse's unending desires. First the cookie, then milk, a straw, a napkin...each thing he gets or does reminds him of something else that he wants to do or just wants to have. By the end, both mouse and boy are exhausted and the mouse needs a glass of milk. "And chances are if he asks for a glass of milk, he's going to want a cookie to go with it."

Creative Mathematical Questions

1. Look at the picture where the mouse is trimming his hair with the nail scissors. Without counting each of the hairs, estimate how many there might be flying through the air and on the floor. How did you come up with that estimation? (Standards 2, 3,4, and 5)
2. Look at the page where the mouse is fluffing the pillow. The author says that the mouse fluffed the pillow a few times. About how many times do you think "a few" is? Use "a few" in a sentence about something that you saw or did today. (Standards 2 and 4)
3. Observe the picture that mouse drew of his family and make some inferences using the picture. Which is the tallest mouse? Which is the shortest mouse? Which mouse is fifth in line? Which mouse is second in line? How many siblings does the little mouse have? (Standards 1, 2, and 4)
4. Look at the picture where the food containers are piled up so that the mouse can put his picture on the refrigerator. About how many olives do you think are in the olive jar? How did you guess that number? (Standards 1, 2, 4, and 5)
5. Look at the picture where the food containers are piled up so that the mouse can put his picture on the refrigerator. If the mouse is 3 cookies tall, how many cookies high do you think the lid of the olive jar is? How did you figure the height out? (Standards 1, 3, 4, and 5)
6. The mouse started out wanting a cookie, then milk, next a straw, a napkin, and next a mirror. At the end of the book the mouse has asked for another glass of milk, a cookie, and we can see in the picture that he has a straw in his glass. Using the pattern, what do you think the mouse will want next? (Standards 1, 3, and 4)
7. If the mouse got to the boys house at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, what time do you think it is by the end of the book? (Standards 1, 4, and 5)

Creative Mathematical Activities

1. After reading the story, have the children trace cookie, cookie box, and milk glass patterns onto construction paper and then cut them. They make decorate the objects as they please. These object will be used as manipulatives for some of the other activities. Each child should have at least 10 cookies, ten glasses of milk, and nine cookie boxes. (Standard 4)
2. Have the children use their cookies to figure out the following problem: Let's pretend that the boy and mouse were really hungry and ate lots and lots of cookies. If the boy ate three (3) at the beginning and seven (7) at the end. How many would he have eaten all together? If the mouse ate four (4) at the beginning and four (4) at the end, how many did he eat all together? Who ate more cookies, the mouse or the boy? The students may also make a representation of their processes by drawing pictures on a piece of paper of how they compared the amounts. (Standards 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6)
3. Have the children use their cookies, cookie boxes, and glasses of milk for this activity. As the teacher, use your magnetized manipulatives on the board to make a pattern and tell the children to duplicate some patterns that you've made. Then have them extend pattern that you've made. Let children work in groups of two so that can duplicate each and extend each other's patterns. (Standards 2, 3 and 4)
4. Practice as-many-as, more-than, and less-than relationships with the various manipulatives. This will work best with the cookies and glasses of milk. Using different numbers of cookies and glasses ask the children questions like the following: Is there a cookie to go with each glass of milk? Is there a glass of milk to go with each cookie? Are there more cookies than glasses milk or more glasses of milk than cookies? Tell them to set up situations where there are more-than, less-than, or same-as amounts of cookies and glasses of milk. (Standards 1, 2, 4, and 6)
5. Using the cookie boxes as 10's and the cookies as 1's, have the children show "how many." Point out that the cookie boxes are called " Ten Tasty Cookies" and that they contain ten cookies each. An example would be to say, "show me 43," and the children should show 4 cookie boxes and 3 cookies. (Standards 2, 4, and 6)
6. After doing the above activity for some time, have the children add using the manipulatives. If they are to add 6 and 7, they should add ones (cookies) until they get to 10 and then regroup using the cookie boxes. Since the answer is 13, they should come up with one cookie box and 3 cookies. The same thing can be done with subtraction problems. (Standards 2, 4, and 6)
7. Write an original limerick or poem about If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and give the poem a mathematic slant.

Limerick

Many would be shocked to know

How much there is to do

With math, and guessing, and other things

Like a mouse, boy, cookie, and you!

(Standard 4)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Numeroff, Laura Joffe. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Mexico: Harper Collins, 1985.

NCTM Standards. From Math Methods Syllabus: Dr. Sue Baker. 1998.