Winter Mice

Look at these darling mice...

My first graders love to cut and paste and build.  So... I told them a true story about what inspired this lesson.  I opened Cedar Creek Elementary 18 years ago.  Our school's playground backs up to a wooded area with trees.  It's quite beautiful!  One cold winter, we found an infestation of mice in our building.  Most likely from the playground doors opening and closing all day long.  We had to cover all of our food.  No more leaving bananas on my desk to snack on.  So I developed this mouse project.  I asked my first graders to dress their mouse warmly (hats, boots, scarves, mittens) and make sure it had something to eat so it would stay outside.  I got cheese, cookies, cupcakes, ice cream cones...you get the idea!

So here is the basic mouse....  I gave each student
1 - 6 x 9 gray
1- 4.5 x 6 gray
1- 3 x 6 gray
And we drew raindrop shapes for the head and body, making sure that all sides of the raindrop touched the edges of the paper.  We folded the last piece in half and cut a circle for the ears.

I showed the students how these pieces could be moved and arranged to show different viewpoints of the mouse.  He could be looking at you, it could be a side view, etc.

Once these basic shapes were cut out, they went to town cutting and gluing all the details.  It took them two 40 minute class sessions.  I use elmer's glue the first day, then glue stick the second, as they outline all the cut pieces with black marker.  Make sure to give your mouse a furry texture with tiny lines.  And, don't forget the whiskers!  We finished the backgrounds in crayon.