- mice
- mouse
MA Standards:
Foundational Skills/RL.PK.MA.1: With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about a story or a poem read aloud.
Counting and Cardinality/PK.CC.MA.1: Listen to and say the names of numbers in meaningful contexts.
Head Start Outcomes:
Language/Receptive Language: Attends to language during conversations, songs,
stories, or other learning experiences.
Approaches to Learning/Cooperation: An interest and engagement in group experiences.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature 6: Listen to a wide variety of age appropriate literature read aloud.
Mathematics/Number Sense 1: Listen to and say the names of numbers in meaningful contexts.
Recite Together: “Three Little Mice” (finger play)
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
ELA Focus Skills: Fine Motor Skills, Speaking and Listening, Vocabulary
Tell children that you are going to teach them a finger-play chant. Explain that this means they will use their fingers to act out the motions of the chant. Say, The chant is called “Three Little Mice.”
- Introduce the terms mouse, mice, and three. Tell children that each finger you hold up will be one mouse. Hold up one finger and say, Here is one mouse. Then hold up another finger and say, Here are two mice. Explain that when you talk about more than one mouse you use the plural word mice. Hold up one more finger and ask, How many mice is this? You may need to help younger children count.
- Sing the chant once and model the finger-play poem. Then invite children to say it and act it out along with you a second time.
English Language Learners: Have children count with you in their home language as you raise your fingers one at a time. When children have said the number in their home language, say the number in English. Have children say the number in English after you. Repeat as children gain mastery.
Three Little Mice (finger play)
Three little mice (hold up three fingers)
One, two three. (put up three fingers one at a time)
Dancing and twirling (swirl three fingers around)
As happy as can be.
One sees yellow, (left hand to brow with eyes searching)
One sees blue, (right hand to brow with eyes searching)
One sees red, (left hand to brow with eyes searching)
Now what shall they do? (shrug shoulders)
Mix some colors and go to bed! <press palms together and tilt head on hands)