A Unique Guest

Introduction

• Show the students the peanut, three quarters, and pictures of real mice.
• Explain that when a mouse is born, it is about the size of a peanut and grows to the size of three quarters.
• Tell them that a baby mouse is called a pup.
• Tell them that one mouse is called a mouse, but more than one are called mice.
• Explain to the children at a mouse is a mammal. Show the concept word strip. Animals that have fur or hair are mammals. Mammals do not lay eggs. They give birth to live young instead of laying an egg. Mammal mothers nurse their young with milk; they have lungs and breathe air. Mice, dogs and humans are all mammals.
• Ask if students can think of other mammals.
• Read aloud Mouse (See How They Grow). Tell the students that this is about real mice.
• Show the students the front cover of If You Take a Mouse to School and repeat the name of the book.
• Tell the students that this story mouse is going to be a guest at school.
• Ask, "What is a guest?" Show the concept word strip and explain that a guest is someone who visits a place. * Explain that when a relative or a friend comes to your house, they are a guest. When you go to a hotel, you are a guest at the hotel.
• Tell the students that this is a unique guest. Show the concept word strip. Unique means very different or one of a kind. Tell them that not many people bring a mouse to school, so that is unique!