- crayons
- markers
- Mouse Paint (book)
- paper
- stapler
- author
- front cover
- illustrator
- title
MA Standards:
Writing/W.PK.MA.3:Use a combination of dictating and drawing to tell a real or imagined story.
Head Start Outcomes:
Literacy Knowledge/Early Writing: Uses scribbles, shapes, pictures, and letters to represent objects, stories, experiences, or ideas.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Composition 16: Use their own words or illustrations to describe their experiences, tell imaginative stories, or communicate information about a topic of interest.
Make a Book about Mixing Colors
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
Skill Focus: Parts of a Book, Story Structure, Storytelling, Vocabulary
Invite children to make up a silly story based on the book Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. Talk about how the mice in the book use their feet to mix paint colors. Ask, What other ways could animals mix paint? What do you use to mix paint? (e.g., with a tail, feather, hair braid, piece of pasta, etc.) Record children's ideas on chart paper. Say, Let's each make our own story about mixing paint!
First help children make construct their books:
- Help children fold two sheets of paper down the middle and crease the middle.
- Staple the crease a few times together to secure the pages.
Then ask questions to help children create their story. Help them name characters and story events by asking,
- Who is the character mixing paint in your story?
- What paints are they going to mix?
- What are they going to use to mix paints?
- What else is going to happen in your story?
- How does your story end?
Children could write their story or dictate text for you to write. Stories could be "wordless" as well. After children are finished telling their stories, help children title their book. Write the title and their first and last names after the words on the cover. Have them illustrate the cover with the main character of their story. Ask, Who is your story about? Let's draw your character on the front of your book!
- Encourage children to share their stories with the class.
- Display children's stories in the Library Center for children and families to view.