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Vintage cover of Stuart Little by E.B. White

Creative Teaching Ideas for

STUART LITTLE

by E.B. White (1945)


ON THIS PAGE: LitWits hands-on activity ideas and instructions, teaching topics, learning links, and more. Scroll on!

Printables for purchaseOR video workshop

About the story


Stuart Little is no ordinary mouse—and he IS a mouse, not a tiny human boy. Born to a family of humans (just go with it!), he lives in New York City with his parents, his older brother George, and Snowbell the cat.  He arrives well-dressed and well-spoken, and proves quite helpful immediately. Though he's shy and thoughtful, he's also a true lover of adventure. His greatest adventure comes when his best friend, a beautiful little bird named Margalo, disappears from her nest. Determined to track her down, Stuart ventures away from home for the very first time in his life. He finds adventure aplenty. But will he find his friend?

Read reviews/buy the book here.  We make a small commission on anything you buy via our Amazon affiliate links throughout this page. 

About the author

Teaching options

This long webpage shares all the fun we had in our live workshops on Stuart Little. We hope it inspires you! If you'd like to teach this book yourself, you might want to buy the printables you'll see throughout.

On the other hand, if you'd like US to teach your kids, check out our video workshop! 

Hands-on Fun

Making a plan . . .

There are many ideas in this Hands-on Fun section—don't feel you have to do them all! If you want to focus on a particular teaching point, our Takeaway Topics section can help you narrow down the activity options. And you can enhance discussions during any activity with audiovisual aids from Learning Links or story objects from Prop Ideas.

In our workshops, we do all the activities on this page, in order of the story's narrative arc. You might find our narrative arc worksheet helpful for sequencing your activities, teaching the important concept of the arc, and helping kids learn how E.B. White brought Stuart Little  into being. 
Narrative arc worksheet & other printables

Bedtime for Stuart

A LitWits activity from the Exposition

Of course, when you have a child the size of a mouse, who looks like a mouse in every way, and even acts like one, complete with gray hat and cane, you've gotta build him a bed that's fit for a mouse. That is, a mouse who, except for his size and appearance, seems perfectly human.

Because that makes perfect sense, right?

We have to "suspend disbelief" to accept Stuart, like his dad does—he doesn't question his son's appearance; he just builds him a tiny bed. So we made Mr. Little's little project ours, and talked about the idea of suspending disbelief for the sake of a rollicking good read. 

We traded Mr. Little's cigarette box for a jewelry box, which we explained as symbolic of Mrs. Little's ring. It's that ring that gave Stuart the chance to perform his first helpful act, showing us he's a good son—and that being small has its advantages.

Right, kids? Stuart thinks so.
SUPPLIES

  • clothespins
  • jewelry box (3 1/4L x 2 1/4W x 1H) - cut a slot inside each corner of the box, against the two long sides like this:
(Save the padding for the "From You I Swipe Some" project, and the lid for the "Heading North" project. You can also put a ring into each box, to be set aside for later use in that project.)

DIRECTIONS

This couldn't be easier.  Just slide the clothespins into the precut slots on the box, and voila!  It's BEDTIME! For some luxurious bedding, see the "From You I Swipe One" pillow project. 
PRINTABLES SET

Caught in A Blind

A LitWits activity from the Conflict

You know that moment when George releases Stuart from the roller blind, and the mouse finds out what Snowbell did to mislead the family?  That's the critical moment when Stuart realizes the cat is sneaky and dangerous—and learns to keep his eyes open. It's a moment of wisdom gained from experience, the beginning of a series of lessons. In fact, the next morning he sets out with "a love of life and the fear of dogs," which is extra funny considering he's just been taught to fear cats.

Gaining awareness and wisdom is what life's about, right? So we captured this moment (and STUART!) in this roller-blind project.

SUPPLIES

DIRECTIONS

Here's a little video showing you how to put this project together:


Fortunately, George finds him in the shade… literally. And when the blind goes up, Stuart sees the light. YESSS!!! He sees that the big world can be a scary place, but also a very wonderful one. That’s what E.B. White believed, and that’s what he’s sharing through his pen. Or rather, his . . . mouse.
Shade template, quote, & other printables

BookBites I

Trapioca

A LitWits activity from the Rising Action

BookBites is the part of our literary experience when we get to “taste the story.”  We choose a food right out of the book, and it has to meet at least one criterion:

  • it’s important to a plot point
  • it has thematic significance
  • it’s unfamiliar for reasons of culture, era, or location
For this book, we chose the tapioca pudding that Stuart's mom is making when, as she opens the fridge door, he slips in for a piece of cheese and gets locked inside. In the dark and cold, he falls into a dish of stewed prunes, and then he gets bronchitis.

But he also gets a soap bubble pipe, bow and arrow, and ice skates from his brother and dad.  And we're sure he got some tapioca pudding from his mom, who must have felt AWFUL. Again, Stuart's learning that the world can be a scary and dangerous yet also a wonderful place.

We served the tapioca with little wooden spoons that might also serve as proper oars for a canoe, so Stuart doesn't have to be all disgusted by cardboard paddles, like in Chapter 13. While enjoying this snack, we watched a boy play "Scarf Dance" on the piano just like George, who's kind of a bumbler but can somehow play this complicated piece.

PRINTABLES SET

The Bird's Words

A LitWits activity from the Rising Action

E.B. White's writing seems so simple, yet it's packed with philosophy, wit, wisdom, and even poetry.  The way he has Margalo introduce herself to Stuart in Chapter 8 is utterly delightful, and Stuart thought so too. In fact, that's probably the moment he falls in love. So we thought our kids should do the same thing Margalo does, in preparation for charming someone special in their distant future.

Using our creative writing worksheet (in our printables), the kids rewrote her lyrical, place-based introduction to introduce themselves, using her style and syntax.



While the kids wrote, we played the whistles and songs of Carolina wrens, which most strongly (to the best of our research) resemble E.B. White's pretty little brown bird with a bit of yellow on her breast, which Mrs. Little thought was a wren.  
Creative writing worksheet & other printables

From You I Swipe One

A LitWits activity from the Falling Action

Stuart's quest to find Margalo must be funded somehow, of course, and what better way to fill his pockets than by acquiring a substitute teacher position?

Ha ha! Just kidding!  It was a good learning experience for him, anyway, and for his students too. The school lessons he skipped weren't anywhere near as valuable as the life lessons he imparted as "Chairman of the World:" don't be mean, and don't swipe.

Yet Stuart's big takeaway was almost a little takeaway, Katharine's tiny pillow stuffed with sweet balsam that he wanted to swipe.He didn't do it, but he really wanted to. You could TELL.

SUPPLIES


While the kids stuffed their own little pillows with sweet balsam, and attached the phrase Stuart somehow knew was on it (as if they were everywhere), we talked about:

  • the double meaning of pine
  • the pun of "I balsam" (bawl some)
  • the source of balsam needles
  • the humor and wisdom in Stuart's perspective on rats
  • Stuart's job description for Chairman of the World:. "A Chairman has to see all sides to a problem . . . I see things whole."

We all felt Stuart deserved a pillow of his own for his journeys, a place to lay his furry little head beneath the stars.  Someday he'll put that pillow on the bed his dad made him. Or we could pretend he's back home, and do that right now.
Pillow phrase & other printables

BookBites 2

Sarsaparilla Stop

A LitWits activity from the Falling Action

Stuart sets off with a "ruinous thirst," quenched by the storekeeper at Ames' Crossing. Just like Stuart, we too couldn't pass up a chance to stop and sip sarsaparilla from a paper cup!

We used sarsaparilla tea for portability reasons, just to let the kids know what the essence of that flavor is, and customized it with our own soda label. Sparkling water makes it more... sparkly. Of course, you can still buy sarsaparilla soda, online and in lots of grocery stores.  And if for some reason you can't find it locally, root beer's the same thing. 

For the most authenticity, kids should put the cup on a step and lie on their bellies on the step above to sip it, JUST LIKE STUART.
Sarsaparilla label & other printables

Heading North

A LitWits activity from the Falling Action

When the pigeon warns Margalo of the cat's malicious intentions through his note in the Boston fern, she flees north at dusk the next day. Stuart, not knowing this but seeking Margalo, also heads north on the advice of the telephone repairman he meets by the road. 

Like E.B. White, he's a man with a positive attitude about his job and life, and he's all about communication.  In fact, his beautiful speech about the wonderful places of the north in Chapter 15 makes us want to pack up and head north.  (That he's discovered such beauty while "following a broken telephone line" sounds very metaphoric to us.  It's broken communication that often sends lost people wandering—and finding themselves.)

Stuart’s also on his way north, toward life, happiness, fortune, adventure, maybe a few scary things, and lots of beauty as well.  This little art piece celebrates all that, as it 

  • helps kids visualize the area north of New York City

  • honors E.B. White's love of Maine (encircled by a ring) and his wife (symbolized by that ring)

  • represents Stuart's quest for his lady love

  • gives us a chance to read aloud and soak up each lovely phrase of the lineman's speech

  • puts leftover supplies to good use!

    SUPPLIES

  • ring

  • lid to the jewelry box (used for the "Bedtime for Stuart" project)

  • small map of the northeastern USA (in our printables)

  • glue

  • a fern frond (you just need the tip)

  • Margalo (clip-on bird)



DIRECTIONS


Glue the map inside the lid, then glue the ring to encircle Maine. Then clip the bird and the frond to the top of the lid.

And now we have a little art piece that reminds you of a little story about a little beauty, a little adventure, a little geography, a little bird, and a little love… and Stuart Little.

Map & other printables

Worksheets


Throughout our workshops, we weave in worksheets that help kids process ideas in written form. For Stuart Little,  the kids used our three worksheets to:

  • follow the narrative arc
  • come up with some impressively Stuartish sentences
  • write creatively about place
These worksheets and all our activity printables are included in our printables set—click the red button for previews and details.  Whenever we add new worksheets and printable to this set, they'll automatically show up in your account.
3 worksheets & other printables

Printables Previews

The worksheets and printables used for our activities are sold as a complete set.

Common Core State Standards Alignment for the comprehensive use of our teaching ideas and materials is also included for grades 3, 4, 5 and 6.
SEE DETAILSOR get our Video Workshop instead!

(If you buy our video workshop, all the printables needed are included.)

The LitWits Kit

Pack up for the field trip!

A LitWits Kit is a bag or box of supplies you pack up and give to each child right before you begin your "field trip" through the story.  You might be doing one-off projects as you read through the book together, or you might do everything in this guide from top to bottom after the book has been read. However you explore this book in LitWitty ways, kids love the anticipation of opening their kit.

If you'd like to build your own LitWits Kits for your child/ren, you could easily arrange the items in a bag, basket, or story-relevant container.  Honestly, it's just as much fun to create a kit as it is to open one.

To make it all the more fun, our printables for many books include special "story packaging" for certain activity supplies, including BookBites. Click the button below for a specific list of contents for this book. 
PRINTABLES SETor get our VIDEO WORKSHOP instead!

(If you buy the video workshop, the necessary printables are included.)

Takeaway Topics

Why we chose this book for a "field trip"
Stuart Little was read to us as kids by our mom, who always laughed at parts we didn't think were all that funny.  Now that we're adults, we get E.B. White's dry sense of humor, and we absolutely love it. But we're also more attuned to the wisdom he so wittily shares through his dapper mouse. 

Besides appreciating his sense of humor and writing talent, we adore E.B. White as a person, and like millions of writers, have relied on his Elements of Style for decades.  He's kind of our hero, which made Stuart Little (along with Charlotte's Web and The Trumpet of the Swan) an easy choice for one of our experiential workshops. And it's packed with great takeaway topics, which we're sharing below.

In our workshops, we did our best to make these teaching points tangible, meaningful, and memorable in the kids' hands. It's amazing how much kids can learn while they're "just" having fun! 

Happy teaching!
Becky & Jenny

Want US to take your kids there?

Takeaway 1

Growing Up


Stuart's born grown up, in many ways, but he still has lots to learn. The moment he realizes that Snowbell can't be trusted is a turning point in his innocent young life. It's the dawning of awareness that the world can be both dangerous and wonderful at the same time. From here on out, he'll begin to truly grow up. He'll always be little, but as he experiences life, he gets wiser and wiser. There's a lot to share with kids about Stuart's "Chairman of the World" philosophy that it's not size or age that matters. You're growing when you gain abilities and the wisdom to understand what's important. We know this Little guy's doing both when he leaves his family to follow his heart and seek his fortune. 

Takeaway 2

Suspending Disbelief


The opening paragraph of Stuart Little is startling--in fact it scared off the head of the Children's Library at the New York Public Library when the book first came out.  But she undercredited kids; all a reader must do is turn off that inner voice that says "Whaaaaaat??? That couldn't really happen!" and relax for the rollicking ride through E.B. White's wit.  Like Mr. Little, who doesn't ask questions but promptly builds his tiny son a a tiny bed, we're just going with it.

And yes, Stuart really is a mouse, though some readers would rather not believe it--over and over again in the story, he's referred to as a mouse.  Not a tiny human boy that looks and acts like one, but an actual mouse, according to the doctor himself. This fact gives us a great chance to talk to kids about the art and purpose of fiction, and the stimulating effect on imagination (and humor!) that a story has when we choose to believe, for a while, that "such things" DID really happen—never mind how.

Takeaway 3

E.B. White


 E.B. White is just as well known for his regular contributions to The New Yorker and the revered writer’s handbook The Elements of Style as he is for his children's books. He also wrote essays and poems, and did sketches, and won many prestigious awards, including a Pulitzer.

Like his character Louis the Trumpeter swan, it wasn’t always easy for E.B. White to communicate–but his determination paid off for himself and for his readers. Most importantly, even as he stepped out of his comfort zone, he was true to himself. He's a wonderful model for kids who are shy, as well as an inspiration to budding writers. We also can see that many of Stuart's experiences may have been the author's--the ruined date, for instance--but we believe him to be the wise, eloquent telephone lineman, that master of communications with a love of the north.

We heartily recommend Melissa Sweet's gorgeously artsy scrapbook-bio Some Writer! for you and your kiddos.

Photo credit: White Literary LLC, EB White and his dog Minnie, CC BY-SA 3.0

Stuart Little  is chock-full of other subjects to explore, too—from songbird migration patterns to model building and bronchitis!  Scroll down to see our curated Learning Links for more tangential teaching opportunities, and to see how we brought this book and its ideas to life. 
PRINTABLES SET

Learning Links

Explore these links to supplement your reading experience, research points of interest, and prompt tangential learning opportunities.

About the Book & Author

The LitWits Author Chat:


Beautiful collage-style kid-friendly bio by Melissa Sweet
A collection of articles, audio readings, and reviews (NY Times)

Story Supplements

PRINTABLES SETor get our Video Workshop instead!

Prop Ideas

When choosing props for our live workshops, we always try to focus on two important categories: props that are unique to the setting, because they help kids understand “what that was like,” and props that are symbolic of themes, because they make big ideas visual and tangible. Both kinds of props generate those wide-eyed, “aha!” moments. 

Here's an overview of the display we put together for our live workshop. Below are some close-ups of our straight-from-the-story props. You could easily have your kids contribute items to a table over time, as the book is being read. 

Sometimes we make a printable prop—click the button to see all our printables for this book.
PRINTABLES SET

Stuart

The real thing.

"Scarf Dance" sheet music

For George's sake.

Schooner

Doll's clothes

Don't tell Stuart.

Boston fern

Margalo's NYC quarters.

Margalo

Complete with warning note

Garbage

The actual garbage described in the story. Gotta keep it real!

Stuart's car

It's not red, but it's vintage!

Teacher tools

Webster's Dictionary, bell, and ink

Oar

A remembrance of the ruined date.

We're glad you're here!

You're literally on our page about inspiring kids to love great books.  YAY! We're eager to share our passion for LitWitting and the work we've done for over a decade.

We're also eager to keep doing it! :)  So if you find this guide-page inspiring* and useful, please share it with your social world. And if you buy our printables for this book, thank you. We appreciate you helping us keep the lights on at LitWits! 

Happy teaching,
Becky and Jenny
Sisters, best friends, and partners
Sure, I'll support LitWits!
*We hope we've inspired you!  If you're feeling a little overwhelmed (we hear that sometimes), remember, you're LitWitting whether you do a lot or a little. You can't go wrong!  The learning is happening, trust us. Just take the pressure off and do what works for your kids, time, and budget.  It's all about inspiring kids to read for fun, so they want to read more—because kids who read more great books learn more great things.

On the other hand, if you'd like US to teach this book to your kids, check out our video workshop!

Either way, get ready for a bunch of wide-eyed kids having “aha!” moments . . . and you, grinning ear to ear because your kids are happily engaged with a great book.

Terms of Use

The Becky & Jenny version:  Feel free to print pages for teaching use, and make copies of printables for your students. Please don’t use our name, ideas, or materials commercially or share our printables, though we'd love for you to share these free pages with your fellow educators.

The blah legal version: You are granted exclusive use of our products in download or print version as follows: You have the right of reproduction that is limited to your use only in whatever quantity is necessary to meet your needs and those of your student participants. This right is unlimited and extends for as long as you need the materials during which time they cannot be given to or shared with any other person(s) through any means of delivery, materially or digitally via the Internet. As such you have the right to store the product(s) on the hard drive of your computer or as hard copy in your resource file.  Any misuse of these rights is in violation of copyright law.

LitWits® is a registered trademark of LitWits Workshops, LLC.

LitWits teaching ideas and materials for Stuart Little  by E.B. White
Copyright 2014 by LitWits Workshops, LLC.  All Rights Reserved.
PRINTABLES SETor get the VIDEO WORKSHOP instead!

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