3 Ways to Extend Mouse Count Beyond the Book

When children interact with a book through hands-on experiences, the story becomes something they can touch, retell, count, create, & make their own.

Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh is perfect for extending literacy through play. With its colorful illustrations, playful storyline, & counting from one to ten and back again, the book naturally inspires opportunities for story retelling, sequencing, counting, number recognition, & creative exploration.

After reading the story together, I created three simple Mouse Count invitations to bring the book beyond the pages & into play.

1. Retell, Sequence & Count the Mice: I brought Mouse Count to life using a plush snake & mice, a clear jar, & sensory liquid numbers.

After reading the book, we went back page by page & used the props to reenact the story. As each mouse was added to the jar, the children counted along & found the sensory number that matched the quantity.

When the clever mice escaped, we reversed the process & counted backward just like in the story!

2. How Many Stripes Does the Snake Have?: I created a loose-parts counting invitation in our tuff tray inspired by the colorful snake in Mouse Count.

I drew snakes on large poster paper & provided a tinker tray filled with colorful loose parts (cubes, rocks, flat marbles, gold, mosaic tiles, glow and the dark pebbles) in colors inspired by the illustrations. Children were invited to decorate the snakes with stripes & patterns before answering the question:

How many stripes does your snake have?

They could touch & count each stripe, add more, take some away, compare their snakes, & count again.

3. Paint Recycled Cardboard Snakes: For the final invitation, I turned recycled materials into an open-ended process art experience.

I cut recycled cardboard into snake shapes & paired them with Colorations® paint (tempera, fluorescent, metallic) , paint cups, & paintbrushes.

Inspired by the snake in the story, children were invited to paint their cardboard snakes however they imagined, experimenting with lines, stripes, dots, patterns, colors, brushstrokes, & color mixing.

These three Mouse Count invitations bring together early literacy, math, fine motor development, art, & play within one familiar story.

Reenacting the book encourages story comprehension, sequencing, recall, vocabulary, expressive language, & storytelling. Counting the mice & snake stripes supports number recognition, one-to-one correspondence, counting forward & backward, quantity, patterning, & early mathematical thinking. Manipulating loose parts & painting strengthens fine motor control, hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness, problem-solving, creativity, & self-expression.

Most importantly, extending books through hands-on play gives children multiple ways to experience & understand a story. Instead of literacy ending when the book closes, the story becomes a starting point for counting, creating, imagining, experimenting, & discovering.