Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for The Lion and The Mouse will find this post helpful. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book. You’ll have everything you need to deliver engaging interactive read aloud lessons based on this story.
With themes of kindness, this The Lion and The Mouse picture book by Jerry Pinkney is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will be a big hit in your classroom too! Learn more about this book below!
Engage Your Students with The Lion and The Mouse Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of The Lion and The Mouse. You can find it in the section below.
- Check out the teaching ideas for reading comprehension strategies, grammar topics and social emotional learning skills that can be taught using this children’s book.
- Download the book companion to make lesson planning simple with The Lion and The Mouse reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
THE LION AND THE MOUSE SUMMARY
The fable, The Lion and the Mouse, teaches the lesson that no creature is too small to help another.
At the beginning of the story, the Mouse runs across the nose of the sleeping Lion. When the Lion wakes up, he catches the Mouse and is about to kill her. The Mouse promises that if the Lion lets her go, she will someday repay the favor. The Lion laughs, thinking there is no way a small mouse could ever help him, but lets her go anyway.
Days later, the Lion finds himself caught in a hunter’s net. When the Mouse hears the Lion’s roars in the forest, she runs to help. She is able to gnaw through the rope and free the Lion. The Mouse points out it is true that a creature as small as she can help a lion.
THE LION AND THE MOUSE LESSON PLAN IDEAS
Each of our 400+ Starts With a Story book companions come with a teacher’s guide to make lesson planning quick and easy, printable worksheets and digital resources that cover ALL of the standards-based reading comprehension skills.
When it comes to writing lesson plans and finding activities for The Lion and The Mouse, we’ve already done all of the heavy lifting for you.
We found this book was especially good at teaching the topics listed below.
READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
The text-based The Lion and The Mouse reading comprehension questions focus on:
- analyzing character
- cause and effect
- identifying theme, message, moral
- sequencing
- summarizing / retelling
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- kindness
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- prepositions
- prefixes
- adverbs
- homophones
THE LION AND THE MOUSE ACTIVITIES
You’ll receive all of the following resources aligned to the story:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
YOU HAVE 2 OPTIONS! WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK COMPANION?
BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for The Lion and The Mouse?
- Lexile® Measure: N/A
- Guided Reading Level: N/A
- DRA Level: N/A
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): N/A
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Jerry Pinkney. It was illustrated by Jerry Pinkney.
What genre is The Lion and The Mouse?
It is a fiction book. You may want to check out our genre activities or read our blog post, How to Teach Genre to Elementary Students.
How many pages are in the book?
The story is 40 pages long.
