If You Give A Moose a Muffin

Written by Laura Joffe Numeroff and Illustrated by Felcia Bond
A Laura Geringer Book
An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 0-06-024405-4

About the book

If a big hungry moose comes to visit, you might give him a muffin to make him feel at home. If you give him a muffin, he'll want some jam to go with it. When he's eaten all your muffins, he'll want to go to the store to et some more muffin mix.

In this hilarious sequel to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, the young host is again run ragged by a surprise guest. Students will delight in the comic complications that follow when a little boy entertains a gregarious moose from the first toss of a muffin to the final scene in which the day's activities culminate in a messy array and the story comes full circle.

Pre-Reading

Have the students look at the front and back covers of the book. What does the cover tell us about the boy and the moose?

• What is the moose holding? What is the boy doing?
• How do you think the boy is feeling?
• What do you think this story will be about?
• What do you know about real moose?

Reading

The teacher makes a decision as to whether or not this will be a read-a-loud story or a task for the students as individuals or a small group.

Reviewing the book

The teacher begins a discussion about the book.

• Which page(s) made you laugh? Why?
• Why are the illustrations important to the book?
• Would you recommend this book to a friend? Who? Why?
• Who do you think is telling the story?
• Make a list in order of the things that the moose wanted. The boy not only got "things" for the moose, he also "did" things for the moose. Discuss examples of cause/effect from statements from the story.

Book follow-up

Vocabulary

• Antlers
• Bull moose
• Cow moose
• Habitat

1. Sequencing: The children create the story, sequencing the activities of the moose, drawing or writing the next part of the sequence, until it is back to the beginning. Then they can retell their story to a friend, showing each section of the wheel.

Preparation: Make two circles of the same size.

1. Divide bottom circle into sections like a pizza.
2. Cut a piece out of the top circle, shaped like a wedge of pizza pie.
3. Place the top circle on the bottom circle and connect with a brad so it will turn easily.

2. Cause/effect: As a group, students develop a "cause and effect" list of their own to complete a new title.

Suggestions:

• If you give a teacher a cat, he/she will want…
• If you give a Principal a dog, he/she will want…
• If you give the secretary a bird, he/she will want…

Develop the list until there are 10 or 12 sentences in the story. Assign students to different sentences in the story; instruct them to draw pictures to go with the sentences and to write the correct sentence at the bottom. Put all the pictures together to make a book to put in the call library or share with another class in the school

3. Moose Measurement: Students find out the size of real moose and then the class can measure the classroom door, the school entrance, the Principal's office, the gym, the library, etc. Which door could a moose go through? Is there a way the moose could get through some of the smaller doors (e.g., tilting its head, etc.)? The students then draw pictures of the moose in different "door" situations including the reactions of people on the other side of the door.

4. Sounds Like: What would a moose sound like when he asks for various things from the little boy? Have the students try out different voices to find the one that they think would fit.

5. Moose Songs: Students create song to go with the "moose" theme (e.g., In My Merry Moose Mobile…).

6. A Return Visit: Students look at the situation if the boy went to visit the moose at his home. What would the house look like? How would it be designed to account for the antlers? What could the boy ask the moose for? The students make a new book about the boy.

7. Research: Students can follow up on some questions about real moose. What do moose really eat? Where do they live? How wide are their antlers? What sounds does a moose make? What are the environmental concerns affecting moose? Students could develop a list of their own questions that they would like to answer about moose.

Resources

For accurate information on moose check out www.hwww.ca