Mouse Paint

 We just began an Art Unit in my class.  The first book that I read was Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. In the book, three little white mice play in 3 jars of paint and then find that they have made new colors.

We first talked about primary colors and secondary colors. We then made color wheels.  I had copied a palette with 6 circles onto oak tag. The children used their fingers to fill in the 3 primary colors. We then again used our fingers to mix the secondary colors (I had the children put a small finger full of the 2 primary colors on the empty spot and then mix it together).  When one of my students asked why we weren't using brushes, I told them that I wanted to have them use their feet (like the mice) but thought it would be too messy (at least to do indoors :).


The next day we made little mice with model magic.  I gave each child a small clump that they rolled into a ball and then molded into a mouse shape. They then rolled 2 more very small balls and then pushed their finger into those balls to make the ears that they stuck onto the body.  Next, they used a permenant marker to draw on eyes and a nose. Finally, they picked a yarn color for their tail and stuck in little whiskers (tiny pieces of wire that I found in our collection of miscellaneous stuff that will someday be useful).

drying mice

I got the idea for this project from The Elementary Art Room (which is a great art teacher blog).

Our Color Bulletin Board (before I put a border up).