Numeroff, L. , & Bond, F. (1991). If you give a moose a muffin. New York: HarperCollins
Publishing.
ISBN# 978-0-06-024405-7
If You Give a Moose A
Muffin is a circle story that starts off with a boy who meets Moose, and offers
him a muffin. To go with the muffin, Moose asks for some of mother’s homemade
blackberry jam. The muffins are so delicious that after eating them all, he
asks for more. Unfortunately, they are out of muffin mix so the two get ready
to head to the store. The two friends become distracted by events such as
sewing, hand puppets, painting, dress up, and cleaning. As Moose sees the boy’s
mother outside by the blackberry bushes, it reminds him of her delicious jam.
Lastly, he can’t have blackberry jam without a muffin to go with it.
As an educator, I
would read this book to children age’s three to five because I find the story
to be entertaining and funny, with the context simple enough for them to understand.
Also, because it is a circle story it helps children understand how each event
corresponds with one another, as the ending and beginning are the same. The
illustrations by Felicia Bond add depth to the story, as they are very
detailed. Children will enjoy the illustrations because the emotions of
excitement when both Moose and the boy are playing come off the page, and you
can feel the tone being light and imaginative. When first choosing this story,
I was drawn to the pictures because every line is outlined finely in black,
creating a bold contrast to all of the colors used. I think that children will
be attracted to the cartoon illustrations in this book, as opposed to pictures
of people and animals in daily life. These drawings are more attractive to
children because of the assortment of different colors, as well as a tone of
positivity and playfulness. What drew me into choosing this storybook for
children was the alliteration of the title. I think it makes the sound of the
title flow, and opens your imagination to wonder how a moose is relevant to
muffins.
Before presenting this book to a
class of children, I would use some provocations to build up anticipation for
children on what activities will happen next. Since this book is all about
muffins, I thought it would be really fun if the whole class baked muffins
together. I would provide all of the ingredients, and of course some blackberry
jam for on the side.
After this baking adventure, I would bring in a large stuffed
moose animal and place it in the center of the room; curiously waiting to see
if any children notice the animal, or ask questions as to why it is there.
Finally, I would share the story to children at circle time and ask how the
children felt about it, if they wondered about anything or made any connections
somehow.
The possible four ways I will
present this story will be as a voice recording, felt board story, prop story,
and magnet board story.
For the voice recording, I will
use my own voice to re tell this book, as well as some background noises to
enhance what I am saying. For example when the story describes the opening of a
door, I will record the sound of a door opening. The story is told as a
narration, so I will just be using my voice for the entire thing. I will also
burn it onto a CD to be played on a CD player.
Using the black felt board we made
in class, I will be creating my own felt representatives of the characters and
objects because I am unable to order a felt story that ships to Canada. I will
create moose, muffin, blackberry jam, soap, a couch, ghost, muffin mix, art
supplies, a sweater, and needle and thread set. I will create these from images
off of the Internet, print them onto fabric paper, and iron all images onto
felt. As a background I will use my black felt board, and put one image at a
time up on the board while telling the story. I will also move and layer the
images according to what is being said.
Using a shoebox as the main stage
for my pop box, I will also be using a stuffed animal moose, needle, thread,
button, blackberry jam, three muffins, soap, a sock, felt pieces that are the
white sheet, bushes, and sweater, with a small painted background.
Lastly, I will print the same images I used for the felt
board story onto magnetic paper, cut them out individually and present them
with a cookie sheet. I will not laminate them because then the pieces will be
demagnetized. My story doesn’t need a specific background, so I will just leave
the cookie sheet plain. I will tell the story in the similar way I did for the
felt board story, sticking each object onto the cookie sheet, and even layering
some of them.
Before the very last page of the
story, I will stop reading and say to the children “I wonder what will happen
when you give him the jar of jam?” This is right before the story comes back to
a full circle, and just like the beginning related the blackberry jam to
muffins. I would choose not to chunk this story, because it is not very long,
and I think that how it comes back to the beginning at the end is that best
part about it.
After reading this story in four different ways, there are
three extension activities to do with the class. One fun art project would be
to create the moose character by tracing each child’s foot onto brown
construction paper, and then tracing their hands on orange paper creating
moose’s head and antlers. Then I would allow each child to cut out their hands
and feet, glue the three pieces together and decorate their moose however they
would like. Setting up the art table with different decorative materials. The
second extension would be to sing the muffin man song during circle time (see
song lyrics at bottom of page). Lastly, I would create a more in depth
discussion on live moose; where in the world they live, their habitat, and what
foods they eat.
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