"If You Give a Moose a Muffin" is a silly children's story by Laura Numeroff about a moose who eats a muffin and sets off a series of comic events, including a puppet show and scary Halloween costume. Read the story to your class during circle time. When the story is finished, talk about the different events that occur in the story and how one event leads to the next. Encourage your students to think of more funny episodes that might occur if the story continued. Give each student an opportunity to think of a new activity for the moose. Write the ideas down on a white board. Encourage students to draw pictures of the stories they imagined.
Teach your students about the foods moose eat. Show videos of moose eating leaves from tall trees, lakes or rivers. Explain to students that moose eat leaves during the spring and summer months. Collect bits of shrubs, pine cones leaves and moss and bring into the class. Let students explore these objects and explain to students that these items are the foods that moose eat during the winter when there are no leaves on the trees. Ask students to draw a picture of the foods moose like to eat.
Show your students how to make moose faces using paper plates. Give each student a paper plate, wiggly eyes, markers and brown paint. Encourage students to paint paper plates brown to make a moose face. When the paint is dry, let students attach the eyes and draw in other facial features. Cut antler shapes out of white card stock, and invite students to paint the antlers brown. When the antlers are dry, help students attach the antlers to the paper plate.
Show your students videos of moose walking and running. Talk about how moose walk on all four legs. Discuss other animals that move like moose, such as horses or cows. Invite students to walk like moose by walking on their hands and feet or on hands and knees.
Help your students make antler hats so that they can pretend to be moose. Give each student a strip of paper long enough to wrap around their heads. Encourage students to paint the strip of paper brown. When the paper is dry, glue it together to make a circle that will fit onto the student's head. To make antlers, ask students to place their hands on a piece of brown construction paper. Trace around their hands using a pencil. Next, help students cut out their handprints using safety scissors. Give students glue and encourage them to glue the hand cutouts onto the strip of paper to make antlers.