The Mouse and Santa

Daisy Glass, Brazil

Daisy Glass has been a teacher in Bahia, Brazil, for 35 years. She owns a school in Vitória da Conquista and truly enjoys developing materials for her students.
E-mail: glassschool@terra.com.br

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Background
Materials
The story
Follow up

Background

This short little story was based on a poem my parents used to read to me when I was a child. I couldn’t find it on the Net.

Materials

1. A big sock (I used a footballer’s sock) with a hole in the heel. Keep the hole hidden from students.
2. A bag full of oranges (or anything else you wish to use)
3. If you have a puppet of a mouse and of Santa, it might be nice to use it.

The story

One Christmas Eve, Santa came to (here you can use the name of a student or a fictitious name. Let’s call him/her A) A’s house. It was midnight and he wriggled down the chimney. He looked around to make sure there was nobody awake. You know that Santa will not leave you any presents if he finds anyone awake. Anyway, he did not see anybody, so he got A’s Christmas stockings and reached for his bag, which was heavy and full of presents. (teacher reaches for the bag and takes an orange). Look! A present for A. What is it? (usually a student will shout out “an orange). An orange? Are you blind? Look at this present. It’s wrapped in blue and green paper. Look again! What is in it? What’s in it? (accept the suggestion of a student. Maybe they’ll say it’s a car or a toy. If you choose the name of a student to receive the presents, they will probably try to think of presents he might enjoy – or again, might hate! When you get a suggestion, ask students to describe it better. “Is it big or small? What color is it? Do you think he/she’ll like it? Put the orange in the sock and continue the story). At this moment, Santa heard some noise. He looked behind the Christmas tree and… Oh, who do you think he found there? A little mouse! The little mouse wanted to see Santa’s presents! Santa turned to the little mouse and said:

“You can’t stay here! You’ve got to go to bed now!
“ Oh, please, Santa. Let me stay. Please, please, please…

The little mouse insisted so much, that Santa let him stay. He then reached for another present to put in A’s Christmas stocking. (Teacher reaches for the orange and gets students to create a present for A. Continue this until the stocking is full of oranges).

Then Santa Claus got ready to leave. But the little mouse turned to him and said:

“Hmmm. I think you can put another present in the stocking!”
“No, I don’t think so. It’s full!
“Yes, you can.”
“No, I can’t.”
“If I can put something else in the stocking, will you give me a present?”

Santa Claus thought for a while. He looked at the stocking… He looked at the mouse…
“OK”, he said. “It’s a deal. If you can put something else in this stocking, I’ll give you a present”.

The little mouse jumped up and nibbled a hole in the stocking!

“There! I just put a hole in the stocking!” (show the hole to the class)

Santa Claus began to laugh. Then he reached for his bag and got a present for the little mouse. Can you guess what it is?

Follow up

When you finish the story, you may wish to start getting the oranges out of the stocking, one at a time, asking students if they remember what is in each “present”. If you used the name of a student, you might ask them if they think student A will enjoy his present, and what he plans to do with it. Then you can turn to the student who got the present and ask him/her what he thought of the present. For example, in one of my groups, they gave their classmate (an adult male) a pair of pink pajamas and we all had a good laugh! When we asked him what he would do with it, he gave them to me!

Please check the Methodology and Language for Primary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.