If You Take a Mouse to School Lesson

Lesson Focus: Parts of a Story - Setting

What you'll need for this lesson:

• If You Take a Mouse to School
• A shoe or tissue box (I asked each kid to bring a shoe/tissue box to preschool that day) 
• Paint/Paint brushes/Paint shirts or aprons
• Stickers
• Clip art pictures of all sorts of things you'd find in different settings (e.g. - forest: trees, bears, pine cones, dessert: cacti, snakes, sand, space: stars, planets, aliens) 
• Glue/Glue sticks 

Using the book If You Take a Mouse to School I taught the kids about the setting of a story.  First, we read the story.  After we finished reading I asked the kids, "Do you know what the setting of a story is?"

I explained that the setting of the story is where the story takes place.  I asked them what the setting of If You Take a Mouse to School took place.

I then told the kids to pretend they had a mouse in their hand.  We talked about what our mouse would see if we took it to different places (e.g.: a restaurant, a farm, a castle).

We went over to the kitchen table where the boxes were set out.  I told the kids that we were going to make a setting box for our pretend mouse.  The kids decided what their setting would be.  Then, they painted and decorated the boxes.

They threw on their paint shirts/aprons and got to work.  Some of the kids really liked painting...

Others preferred using stickers.

Painting, gluing, and putting on stickers are great fine motor activities for toddlers/preschoolers.

Princess worked very hard on her setting box and was very proud of it.

The kids really loved this activity and it really cemented the idea of the setting of a story.

More preschool fun:

Color Lesson

Little Red Hen Lesson