Activities Coloring Pages Word Puzzles Word Treasures Return to the Story
Activities
Get ready to discuss, share, play, create, and read your way to developing and empowering a strong character.
Imagine
Imagine finding the courage to face a very grave danger. Then imagine your surprise to learn that telling the truth is the only thing that will save you. Such is the story of a small mouse and a fierce red dragon.
Story Focus, Virtues, and Life Lessons
Story Focus:
Courage, Truth, and the Value of Family and Friends
Virtues:
- Courage – following through with challenges, despite being afraid or fearful.
- Truth – being in accord with fact or reality.
- Knowing the value of family and friends – a lifelong lesson, where life’s situations give us the opportunity to feel gratitude toward others.
Life Lessons:
- Courage
The mouse knew he could not escape the dragon by running away. Mack was so scared it was hard for him to speak. He knew he could not outrun the dragon. - Truth
Mack, the mouse, answered the dragon with honesty. The dragon recognized the mouse was telling the truth and allowed him to leave without harm.
The dragon knew the little mouse was telling the truth. “Leave me mouse before I change my mind. Do not come back!” said the dragon. - Value of Family and Friends
The mouse felt compassion for the dragon. The dragon lived alone without family or friends. His treasure kept him captive in the cave.
Mack thought, “The dragon doesn’t know what he is missing without family and friends to share his life.”
Magical Moments
Interactive Discussion and Activities
Reading Story Techniques
First, pre-read the story before reading it aloud with your learner. Use expressive language, gestures, motions, and sounds to make the story come alive:
- Begin the story sounding mystical as this story includes a mythical animal – an old red dragon.
- Show a sad face and pretend tears when the dragon was crying.
- Change your facial expression to happy when the tears turn into gold coins.
- Sound mysterious as you read Mack’s adventure climbing Winter Wind Mountain.
- Show the action of stopping, looking around, and dramatically listening to the night air.
- Read slowly and sound nervous when Mack is entering the cave.
- Show a frightened expression when Mack sees the dragon.
- Make the dragon sound mean and ferocious when speaking to Mack.
- Make Mack sound humble and meek when speaking to the dragon.
- Use excitement in your voice when Mack ran home to his family.
- End the story with a calm sounding voice.
While Reading
Interject these questions to involve your learner:
- Where does the dragon live?
- What happened when the dragon cried tears?
- Why did Mack leave his warm mouse nest?
- When did the mice sing and dance?
- Who liked to hear the story of the dragon?
After Reading
Use the answers to these questions to recall points in the story.
- Why was the dragon happy in his cave?
He watched as the tear landed on the ground and turned into a coin of gold. Now the dragon was filled with joy. - Why did the mouse go into the cave?
Mack came to a stop. What was that sound? Did he hear the wind? Or was it another animal? No, it wasn’t the wind. And what was that smell? He could tell it was coming from a dark cave. - Why did the dragon let the mouse leave the cave?
The dragon knew the little mouse was telling the truth. “Leave me mouse before I change my mind. Do not come back!” said the dragon. - What happened when the mouse returned home?
His family was so happy to see his safe return. They sang and danced with joy. His story soon spread like wildfire. All the mice wanted to hear more. They never tired of hearing the story of the small brave mouse who escaped from the large red dragon. It is a well-loved bedtime story by mouse pups even to this day.
Behavior/Social Development (All Ages):
- Courage
To teach courage, praise your learner for trying new things, new foods, and new activities. Tell him/her you are proud of them for not being afraid and trying. Tell them they are brave and have courage. - Truth
Remind your learner to always tell the truth and praise them for when they do. People often are afraid to tell the truth for fear they will get in trouble. Even if a learner does something bad but owns up to it and tells the truth, they should be praised for being truthful. Make sure that if a punishment is necessary, it is a consequence that is directly related to the wrongful behavior, not the fact that the learner told the truth. - Valuing Family and Friends
Identify how much your learner values his/her family members by having him/her finish the statement: I appreciate my ______________ because __________________. Complete a statement for each family member. Share your gratitude for family and friends by identifying the name of the person and the reasons why that person is valued.
Language Development (Younger Learners):
- Antonyms: dark – light, high – low, small – large, soft – hard, sad – joy, little – big
- Colors: brown, gold, red
- Identify word patterns: Long O Sounds “– old”
Bolded words, among the following, were used in Bed of Gold — bold, cold, gold, hold, mold, old, sold, told - Have your learner identify the feeling words associated with having courage: Ask the question, how do you feel when you tried something new or accomplished something you were fearful of. (brave, proud, strong, glad, relieved). Extend the discussion to include reasons why they felt that way.
- Have your learner identify words that describe how they feel after telling the truth and when they tell a lie. (happy, good, brave, etc., versus bad, guilty, sad, etc.)
- Have your learner identify behaviors of being a good family member. (sharing, caring, kindness, loving, etc.)
Language Development (Older Learners):
- Share and discuss experiences that have forced you to be brave and show your courage. Identify and share situations in which you and your learner did not show courage.
- Ask your learner, to define a “lie?” Extend the discussion by identifying the difference between the following words — “lie,” “fib,” “a white lie,” “a half-truth,” “to make up the truth,” and “stretch the truth.”
- Use “what if” examples to talk about telling the truth. Emphasize the danger in starting a lie. Example – What if you and your friends were at a party and saw someone looking through another person’s purse?
- Discuss and cite examples of situations where it is extremely important to tell the truth. Example — A friend of yours comes to school with a black eye. This friend had told you in the past that her father hits her a lot. The teacher asks you what happened to your friend.
- Identify synonyms for truth. Examples are “fact,” “veracity,” “sincerity,” “candor,” “frankness,” “precision,” and “exactness.”
- Ask your learner to identify action words that would show how he/she values family and friends.
Making Memories
Discover the values covered in this story through guided activities and fun projects that ensure learner involvement.
Arts and Crafts ideas for Creatively Understanding the Virtues
Arts & Crafts Activities (Younger Learners):
- Courage Badges:
Create a courage badge for your learner to wear whenever he/she is faced with an intimidating challenge to remind them that they are brave and can carry through.- Cut circles out of cardboard, and write the word “Courage” across the center.
- Using various materials (crayons, markers, fabric scraps, glitter and glue and stickers) decorate the badge.
- Attach a safety pin to the back of the cardboard with duct tape.
- Gold nuggets or coins:
- Spray small pebbles or stones with metallic gold paint to simulate gold nuggets.
- Count nuggets, sort nuggets into sizes (small/large; big/little).
- Give gold nuggets as a positive reinforcement for brave/good behavior.
Arts & Crafts Activities (Older Learners):
- Courage power bracelets that learners can wear whenever they face an intimidating challenge to remind them that they are brave and can carry through.
- Ask learners to choose a symbolic color for courage.
- Provide string, scissors and beads in the chosen color.
- Cut pieces of string to fit your learner’s wrist, and have them string the beads.
- Tie a knot or attach clasps to the bracelets.
Involvement Tips (All Ages):
- You teach honesty by encouraging your learner to tell the truth and to let you know what’s on their minds. Another way of encouraging honesty is avoiding confrontations when you already know the answer.
One night, Mack was getting ready to leave his warm mouse nest to look for food.
Activities Coloring Pages Word Puzzles Word Treasures Return to the Story