Preschool Book Activity

The book chosen is “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” ( If you give a mouse a cookie |

Read Aloud | Storytime (youtube.com)). This is a cherished children’s book that follows a

playful mouse after a boy gives him a cookie. The book has a sequence of cause-and-effect

events that circle back to the original request of the mouse for another cookie from the boy. The

book has a variety of skills that can be targeted toward the language and literacy development of

a preschooler. The two skills that will be explained in this paper are interpretative, logical

functions encouraging more elaborate vocabulary and ideas as well as deeper print awareness.

Asking questions or engaging in discussion about “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” will

be valuable for language development. Throughout the book, there are hints about what the

mouse could ask for next based on previous events. Encouraging the child to make predictions

before turning each page assists in critical thinking and inference skills. By asking concrete

questions such as "What do you think the mouse will want after he finishes the milk?" The child

learns to use context clues and prior knowledge to anticipate upcoming events. The story also has

a clear chain of events that leads to new actions through the mouse’s desires; therefore, engaging

the child in discussions about the order of events helps reinforce their understanding of

sequential storytelling and encourages complex sentence formations. For instance, by asking

questions like "What happened after the mouse got the cookie?" or "What did the mouse ask for

after he drank the milk?" The preschooler could answer “The mouse asked for milk after he got

the cookie.” This process not only enhances comprehension but also enriches the child's

vocabulary, and ability to express ideas about cause and effect and organize information

logically using a variety of new word types.

 In addition to storytelling elements, shared storybook reading can be a valuable

opportunity to introduce and reinforce print awareness. Preschoolers typically acquire many

achievements of print awareness along a developmental continuum. The five milestones of print

awareness include print interest, print functions, print conventions, print forms, and print part-to-

whole relationships. For the intent of this paper, the main focus will be print conventions. "If

You Give a Mouse a Cookie" offers various print conventions, including directionality and word

recognition. By guiding the child to follow along with the text or identify individual words or

phrases the adult supports the child's language acquisition and literacy skills. For example, the

reader can use their pointer finger to follow along the words of the book from left to right and

top to bottom and then have the child try. The reader could also do this with page-turning,

encouraging the preschooler to turn the page the correct way. Print conventions are influential

for preschoolers to learn as their literacy and language skills increase because these are rules that

allow a person to read successfully.

By encouraging these language skills through shared storybook readings, preschool-aged

children not only enjoy the story but also benefit from enhanced language development.

Interactive sessions provide a learning environment where children can practice language skills

in a meaningful context, setting them up for future success.