Mouse Paint

I had a panic moment a few weeks ago. My second year observation was scheduled for my kindergarten class and I had forgotten the book my project was based on at my other school. Driving the 20 minutes to get it was out of the question, and after asking all the kindergarten teachers and the media aide I still didn't have a copy of the book to read to the children. I completely changed my plans, and based a project on another book that I did have handy.

I'm sure all the art teachers out there have seen the book Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. It teaches the children primary and secondary colors (although, it doesn't use those terms, I used the book as a launching point to teach them the terms), and color mixing. After reading the book, I had the students draw three large teardrop shapes on a white piece of paper. We then went over which colors to put in each spot of the mouse to show the colors that need to be mixed to get each of the secondary colors. I asked the kids to start with yellow, as it so easily gets yucky-especially with kinders doing the painting!

Between classes of kinders (I have one each day), my new document camera was dropped off. I found that the kids that were able to paint along with me via the camera found greater success than those that watched the demo and had reminders on the board. I love my new camera, and can't wait until Monday, when we have a professional development day and I have scheduled two of our IT people to come in and show us the features of the machines! I am hoping to learn how to more easily make storyboards, and how to make demo videos! Imagine-I can use the same demo for every class (no more "did I tell you....?"), and I can even do the demo for classes when I have a sub! :)

Here are a few examples of completed Mouse Paint pictures. The second art class I had the students cut out six circles for ears and three long triangles for tails. I showed them a straight triangle, and a couple of ways to make them a little wavy. They did a great job, and even the kids that sometimes struggle in art had adorable pictures!

I don't have any Model Magic this year, but I found this image online and think it would be a wonderful expansion of our paintings! Maybe next year...