Mouse shapes & house shapes ages pre-K+
Supplies:
Construction paper cut into triangles, circles, squares, rectangles, and a few diamonds
Large paper square and triangle for each student to build a house
stick glue
scissors
1 full sheet of construction paper for each student
The book, ‘Mouse Shapes’ by Ellen Stoll Walsh
optional: magazines to cut pictures out of
Get your scissors and circle punches out and cut squares, circles, and triangles, in different sizes, from colored construction paper. If you can buy paper shapes pre-cut, that’s great. This is one of the projects I save scrap paper for and I cut the shapes out myself to save money. For this project include a large yellow triangle and a few small orange circles for each student to make the swiss cheese mentioned in the story. Make a few diamonds as well, since the mice in the story put two diamonds together to make an open book. Place all of the paper shapes on trays and set them out on the tables. Also set out stick glue and scissors.
The book, Mouse Shapes, is so sweet and simple. One year, I read the first line of the story to my class, “The mice were running from the cat. ‘Hurry!’ said Violet.” and it hit me and the kids at the same time that we had a Violet in our class. It was magical. I looked at her and was so surprised, as was she. So for the rest of the story, each time the name of a mouse was mentioned, I substituted the name of one of my students... and they LOVED it. I do it with other stories now, too.
For the lesson: Show the kids that when they cut a square down the middle, they get two rectangles and when they cut a square diagonally, from corner to corner, they get two triangles.
I always have to remind myself before I charge into the project, to have the kids write their names on their papers first... or at least their initial if they are just learning to write their name. Have your students do that now, on the large sheet of paper. This is what the kids will use to arrange their shapes on to create the objects in the book.
Each spread of “Mouse Shapes” has the mice assembling shapes to create an object. As you go through the story, give your students time to put the shapes together along with the mice, but don’t spend time gluing them down. The mice make a house, a tree and sun, a wagon, an open book, a fish, the cat’s scary face, scary mice and a triangle of swiss cheese.
When you are done reading the story, give the kids their assignment: Use the large square and triangle to build a house. When everyone has finished all of their houses, they will make a village.
Have the kids write their name on the back of the house!! If they glue their house to the large sheet of paper, that’s ok. Sometimes I end up cutting it out to use the house by itself, or I place it in the very back when I put the houses together.
If some of the kids finish early or get bored, encourage them to add a chimney to their house, or a dog and a dog house, or people looking out of a window. They can also look through magazines to cut people and animals out and glue onto their house.
When all the kiddos have made their houses, tape or glue them all to a larger sheet of paper and you have a village. Assemble the houses in a way that you can eventually take them apart so the kids can take their houses home. Overlap the houses and line them up in rows. Display the village for everyone to see. If you have several classes doing this project you can display them side by side for a big city.