I Saw a Moose Today

Suggested ages:  3–6, 7–10

Summary:  
The grown-ups are cleaning house, so young Whims Wiggin is sent out in the yard to play. With a lively imagination, a suburban child’s morning turns into a northwoods adventure full of wild animals. The swinging tree becomes a moose, the loons invite Whims to their ball, and the beavers share their birch éclairs. Rhyme and rhythm carry readers along on this whimsical experience.

Tips for Reading:   
Emphasize the meter as you read.
-      /       -   -       /         -        /         -          -         /.
a   great  giant  head  with  mammoth  moose  rack.

(The first and last sentences on each page do not follow a set meter.)

• Identify the animal on each page and talk about where the animal lives.
• When you read the first line, have the children say the name of the animal along with you.
• Have the children to read the last line of each page along with you.  (It is repetitive with a varying number of “very’s”).

Questions before reading:

• In this book, a child imagines that things are happening. What does it mean to imagine something? 
• Give me an example of something you have imagined.
• In this story the child imagines animals. What kinds of animals live around your home? 
• This book is written in rhyme. What words can you think of that rhyme with “today”?
• We’re also going to come across some big words in this story. One of those words is beret. What is a beret? 
• Another word is cocoon. What is a cocoon? What lives in a cocoon?  
• How about cacophonous? Have you heard the word cacophonous? When we get to the big words we may stop and look them up and see how they fit into the story. 

Introduction to story:
In this story, a child named Whims Wiggin is sent out in the yard to play while the parents clean the house. Whims likes to imagine things, and soon all kinds of animals show up in the yard. As you listen, you may learn some things about each animal, and go on some great adventures with Whims and the imaginary friends. 

Questions after reading:   

• Did Whims really see the animals in the story or were they just imagined?
• Do all of the animals Whims imagined live around here? What other animals might Whims imagine?
• Read part of a page. Find the rhyming words? 
• What is a poem?
• Is this story written as a poem? Why do you think so? 

RELATED ACTIVITIES

Art:   

• Think of your favorite animal. Draw a picture of the kind of environment the animal would need to live in (habitat). Find a picture of the animal and paste it in your drawing.
• Compare the animal pictures in the story to those in a field guide. How are they the same, how are they different. 

Culture:   
What animals would a child imagine if their home was in Australia? Africa? How do you think Whims knew which animals to imagine for their backyard?

Dramatization:   

• Move and act like an animal and see if others can guess what you are. For a clue, make a noise like your animal.
• Choose one page of the story. Make up a mime to show the action of the page. One person read the page while the other person acts out what is happening.

Language:   

• Select a page and identify the meter. Clap or march to the meter as the page is read. Identify and say the rhyming words.
• Find and read another poem or a Dr. Seuss book. Clap or march out the meter and say the rhyming words. 
• Make a list of words that rhyme with your name (or your pet’s name).
• Match each of these words with animals in the story: hibernate, migration, galloped, large beak, cocoon, snowshoes, mosquitos, lodge. What does each word mean?

Math:        

• The word “very” increases and decreases as the story progresses. Write the number of ‘very’s’ on each page and say what pattern you see.
• Turn to the page in the story about the beaver. How many different kinds of critters do you see? How many frogs are there? How many beaver? How many more frogs than beaver are there? Are there more otters than frogs? Are there more turtles than otters? How many less turtles than frogs are there? 

Music:     

• Think of a song in which the lyrics have rhyming words.
• Make up a tune to go with the rhythm of the poem.
• Listen to “Carnival of the Animals. “What do you think the composer was imagining about each animal?
• Use the song “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and instead of “lamb” say “moose” or “loon” or any other wild animal. Instead of “fleece was white as snow” put in words that describe the animal.  Example:  “Mary had a big, big moose. It’s legs were long and thin. And everywhere that Mary went that moose was sure to go”. 

Science:   

• Choose two animals from the story and compare them. What do they eat? How do they move? What kind of place do they live in? Could the two animals live in the same place? Why or Why not? Make a list of how they are alike and different.
• Choose an animal and read the facts about it in the back of the book and answer the questions. You can look in other books or have someone help you look on the internet to find answers.

Writing:   

• Choose an animal. Write a sentence or two that are realistic about the animal. Write another sentence that is fantasy. What does anthropomorphic mean? Find examples of anthropomorphic behavior for the animals in the book.
• What other stories do you know that anthropomorphize animals?

Other:   
The following can be done by one child or a line of children holding hands. While a reader reads the poem on a page, the child or children walk a normal walk to center stage for the unmetered line, “I saw a moose today”. As the metered lines are read, the children march in a circle stomping a foot on each accented syllable and walking a normal step for each unaccented syllable. Stop and stand still for the final line, “I’m sure.” Shake a finger while saying, “but I’m sure.”

Related Books:

• Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss (Random House Books for Young Readers, 1960)
• Our Wild World Moose by Anthony D. Fredericks (Northword Press, 2000)
• Loon Alone by Pamela Love (Down East Books, 2002)
• We Are Bears by Molly Grooms (T&N Children’s Publishing)
• Building Beavers by Kathleen Martin James (Lerner Publishing Group, 2002)
• I’m a Caterpillar by Jean Marzollo  (Scholastic Cartwheel, 1997)
• When I Lived with Bats by Faith McNulty (Scholastic Inc., 1999)
• Lynxes by Barbara Keevil Parker and Duane F. Parker (Lerner Publishing Group,  2005)
• Woodpeckers by Jill Kalz (Smart Apple Media, 2002)