- construction paper
- craft sticks
- crayons
- jars of tempera paint (red, blue, yellow)
- markers
- scissors
- tape
- white paper
- color
- mice
- mix
- mouse
MA Standards:
Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.2: Recall information for short periods of time and retell, act out, or represent information from a text read aloud, a recording, or a video (e.g., watch a video about birds and their habitats and make drawings or constructions of birds and their nests).
Head Start Outcomes:
Logic and Reasoning/Symbolic Representation: Represents people, places, or things through drawings, movement, and three-dimensional objects.
PreK Guidelines:
Science and Technology/Inquiry Skills: Make predictions about changes in materials or objects based on past experience.
“Mouse Paint” Puppets
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
Skill Focus: Creative Expression, Fine Motor Skills, Vocabulary
Educator Prep: Cut out mice shapes from poster board. You may want to have templates available of other things in the story (cat, cat food bowl, jars of paint, etc.) for children to paint and cut out.
Help children make their own Mouse Paint puppets. Do a picture walk of the story before children begin. Explain that the author, Ellen Stoll Walsh, used cut paper to make the illustrations in the book.
- Give children paper to cut shapes out of, templates to cut, or precut shapes of the mice.
- Have children paint the mice using the colors from the book.
- Ask them to mix the colors on the mice’s feet, as in the book. Ask them to predict what color the new color will be once the colors are mixed.
Suggest children choose different characters or props from the story to create. Have children cut out shapes, cut the templates, or decorate precut shapes.
- Once all the characters and props are complete, have children tape a craft stick onto the back of each piece to use as a handle.
- Encourage children to use their puppets to act out the story in the Pretend and Play Center.