As teachers start preparing for Thanksgiving in the classroom, there are so many activities designed to teach students gratitude. This can be a really challenging concept for our students, especially the younger ones. Today we are spotlighting a read aloud, One is a Feast For Mouse, because is a great example of greed versus gratitude. Students will see first hand what can happen when someone is greedy, and what it means to be grateful. We love how sweet this story is, and students will love that it is silly too! - Jodi and the Starts With a Story Team
SUMMARY
One is a Feast For Mouse is a Thanksgiving story about a mouse living in a family’s home. After Thanksgiving dinner when the family is resting and playing, the mouse makes his way to the dinner table. He finds all the leftover food and is happy to see a pea and thinks a pea is a feast for a mouse. However, as he makes his way home across the table, he is enticed by all the other delicious foods. Each time he tries to carry more food and his pile grows bigger and bigger. Eventually, the mouse has a run in with the family’s cat and ends up dropping all the food! There is a big crash and the mouse runs back to his house. After all the excitement, the mouse finds a pea made its way into his home. He is grateful for the pea and considers it a feast.
Students will love this silly and heart-warming tale about a mouse's Thanksgiving feast.
USE THIS BOOK TO TEACH:
One is a Feast For Mouse can be used to teach many of the academic skills you’re probably already working on. Here are some of our ideas for skills you can teach.
- Examine the repeated words and phrases throughout the book. Discuss with students why authors include repeated phrases.
- Help students to determine the point of view of this story.
- Engage students in descriptive writing based on the book.
- Students can get creative and add pages to the middle or end of the book.
- Use examples from the book to teach a lesson on action verbs and verb tense.
- Show students examples of prepositions in the text.
- Discuss the meaning of greed and gratitude.
- Practice identifying problem solving strategies.
NO-PREP PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES:
If you are looking for “ready to go” activities for the first day of school, be sure to check out the book companion. With it you’ll receive all of the following resources to align with this specific book:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
Planning a new read aloud is probably the last thing on most teachers’ lists this time of year. Don’t spend your valuable time planning when this resource has everything you need.
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
ADDITIONAL BOOK SUGGESTIONS
You and your students will also love these similar books:
- Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano
- Balloon’s Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet
- Thanksgiving at the Tappletons by Eileen Spinelli
- Cranberry Thanksgiving by Harry Devlin and Wende Devlin
TRY OUT A SAMPLE COMPANION
It's hard to explain how amazing the Starts with a Story book companions are because there is just so much goodness included in each one. It's best if you experience using one for yourself. Sign up below & we'll send you an entire book companion to try out for FREE!
