If You Give A Moose A Muffin

If You Give a Moose a Muffin

Author: Laura Numeroff

Genre: Fiction

Grade Level: Grades K-2

Year Published: 1991

Summary

This is a book all about what happens when you give a moose a muffin. The book goes along to say that, if you give a moose a muffin, then he will want some jam to go with it. After this initial request, many urgent requests take place, and the book is about how giving a moose a muffin can result in many crazy events. The book circles around back to the moose wanting a muffin. 

About the Author

Laura Numeroff grew up in Brooklyn, NY, and currently lives in Los Angeles, California. She was born in 1953. She was the youngest out of three girls, and she says that her "favorite possessions were my microscope, a box of 64 crayons and my library card." She was a Girl Scout, and really enjoyed reading books, drawing, and inventing her own stories! Laura attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. She got into children's books by completing an assignment for a class. The children's book she wrote for that class ended up being her first published book!

Source: http://www.lauranumeroff.com/

How to Use it

This book gives some comic relief to the children. It also shows the relationship between cause and effect, and also illustrates what a "chain of events" is.

Pre-Reading: Have the class make predictions about the book. What do you think will happen if you give a moose a muffin? Students will enjoy coming up with some crazy predictions. In addition, discuss with the class what a chain of events is, and give some everyday examples that they can relate to, and have them come up with more on their own. For example, things that can happen on the playground that can lead to other things happening on the playground.

Post-Reading: Have the students get into small groups and discuss what they liked about the book. Then, as an in-class activity, have them write their own funny chain of events, starting with the prompter of “ If you gave a cat a cake…” In addition, sequencing cards could be made to have students sort as a center. 

 

What do I Think?

This is a wonderful book. Students really enjoy the funny aspects of the book, and they also love to put the scrambled events in the right order. I think that this book is great for predictions and sequencing, and therefore would be valuable for any classroom.