The Old Grey Cat

Sometimes I like to incorporate games into story time.  The way I play this game gives the children another opportunity to participate, as well as an opportunity to work on self-regulation and memory.  In this game, children must remember which houses have already been checked and guess a new color.

The Old Grey Cat:
The old grey cat is sleeping, sleeping, sleeping.  The old grey cat is sleeping by the house.The little mouse is hiding, hiding, hiding.  The little mouse is hiding in the house.
(Hide mouse inside one of the houses)The old grey cat is waking, waking, waking.  The old grey cat is waking by the house.

The old grey cat is looking, looking, looking.  The old grey cat is looking for the mouse.
If you think that you know, you know, you know, if you think that you know, raise a quiet hand.(Ask children which house they think the mouse is in)
The old grey cat is looking, looking, looking.  The old grey cat is looking in the _____ house.(Spoken) Little mouse, little mouse, are you in the _____ house? (Open door.  If mouse is in there, go to next part; if not, repeat "the old grey cat is looking" until the mouse is found.)The little mouse is running, running, running.  The little mouse is running away from the cat.  

(Repeat game as time allows.)

I don't always do all the verses, picking and choosing as necessary.  For example, if many children want to participate and they are self-regulating well, we go through quickly to get more guesses in and to hide the mouse several times.  If the group is new to this game or style of game, I may do more singing and only hide the mouse once.

 *I drew the mouse from the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie to use in this game, creating a nice tie from this last song/game right into the story I was reading at the time.*