This project and its actions were made possible due to co-financing by the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals
Nexus resource
To a Mouse
Story sorting activity
Subject(s):
English
Age group(s):
7–11
Topic:
Poetry
Licence information | This resource is free to use for educational purposes. ©British Council 2015
Source | This resource was originally developed by Christine McCormack and has been adapted by
EAL Nexus.
The story of To A Mouse is mixed up.
Can you put it in the right order?
The man apologises to the mouse on behalf of all humans.
He says that the mouse might steal little bits of food
from human farms, but this is OK; one little mouse doesn’t
eat much.
The poem ‘To a Mouse’ by Robert Burns is about a man
who is ploughing a field and accidentally digs up a mouse’s
nest.
Now her little house is ruined.
He imagines the mouse planning ahead for the winter –
she worked so hard to make her nest her home and then
the human ruined it with his plough.
The mouse is shivering and frightened. The man stops
working to try and comfort the mouse. He tells her to be
calm and that he didn’t mean to break her nest.
The man then says that this is life. No matter what plans
you make, they can often be messed up.
Lucky mouse!
The mouse has it easy compared to a human. Mice live in
the present, while humans look to the past with regret
and to the future with fear.
When he thinks about it, the mouse is right to be
frightened of humans. People set traps for mice, send
cats after them and now dig up their homes.
©British Council 2015