Mice On Ice, or what to do when you need to occupy first grade students who are consumed with upcoming holidays

Just before our holiday break I was finishing up a unit on Beginning Readers with first grade.  We needed a read aloud and fun activity that would feature Beginning Readers and keep our young students busy in those last restless hours before vacation.

I chose a book from the Holiday House series ‘I Like to Read‘, called Mice on Ice by Rebecca Emberley and Ed Emberley.  This series of books features picture books with simple vocabulary.  Even the students whose reading skills are more advanced enjoy the stories and wonderful illustrations.

The collage style illustrations of this particular title leap off the page and beg for the students to start creating.  Our library assistant used Microsoft Word’s shape options to draw the outline of a picture that looked very similar to this colorful image.

Students cut, tore, and crumbled construction paper to create their own cats.  First graders prefer the glue sticks that glide on purple and dry clear.  Yes, they had a discussion about the best glue sticks.

Most students named their cats.

Question: Why is the name Bob so funny and so popular with these kids?

MEOW!

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