Mouse Paint

Materials:
- paper
- watercolor paint
- water
- paintbrushes
- black oil pastels
- red, yellow, and blue sticker dots
- "Mouse Paint" by Ellen Stoll Walsh



Almost every child has read or will read the popular book, "Mouse Paint." It's a wonderful teaching tool to use in the art room, too!

After reading the story to my Kindergarteners, we made our own mice to paint in! I prefolded all the sheets into three sections so that my students would fit each mouse in their own separate section. I also pre stuck on the sticker dots for the kids, which I bought at Office Max.

I demonstrated step-by-step how to draw the mice. First we start with an oval for their body, which the students draw one in each section. Next we add circle ears and smaller circles for the inside of their ears. We used circles for eyes, or dots. I encouraged the children to make the eyes any way they wanted, with pupils, eye lashes, winking, whatever they'd like! Next was an upside down triangle for their nose, one short line down from the triangle to begin their mouth, and two little curves to complete the smile. We added whiskers, a tail, and two stick legs. We did all of this with a black oil pastel.

I used watercolor because I was nervous if we used tempera, the students would have a difficult time painting around the mouse face. Writing this now, I realized may you could do the painting portion first if you wanted to use tempera, and add the details when the paint is dry. This lesson only took one 40 minute class though, and waiting for paint to dry would cut this project into two separate, short lessons, and a group of antsy kids with extra time at the end of each class.

I explained that the sticker dots were a guide of what colors to mix when painting their mice. I think the end result turned out adorable! And now my friends know their primary colors!