Hummingbird Educational Resources

MOUSE IDEAS
Submitted by Kim
Mouse Cookies
With the children, prepare a batch of drop cookie dough. Demonstrate how to drop three spoonfuls of dough onto a cookie sheet so that it will resemble a mouses head with two ears when baked. The mouse cookies can be frosted or
details can be added with raisins, chocolate chips, an dstring licorice.

Mouse Day
To celebrate Mickey's birthday read the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numberoff. Sing Happy Birthday and celebrate w/ mouse cookie snacks.

Play Mouse, Mouse, Where's the Cheese
This game is played in cicle formation. Arrange the chairs and place one in the center of the circle.Place a block to represent the cheese under the chair. Select one child, the "mouse" to sit on the chair and close his or her eyes. Then point to another child. This child must try to remove the cheese without making a sound. After the child returns to his chair in the circle,
instruct all of the children to place their hands behind their backs. Then in unison the children say,"Mouse, "Mouse, Where's the Cheese?" The "mouse" then opens his/her eyes and tries to guess who is holding the cheese.

Mice
Purchase or borrow mice from a pet store to keep as classrooms pets. Allow the children to assist in caring to the animals

Mouse
Here is a mouse with ears so funny,
(place index an dmiddle finger on thumb to represent a mouse)
And here is a hole in the ground.
(make a hole with the other fist)
a noise he hears, he pricks up his ears
And runs to his hole in the ground.
(jump mouse into hole in other fist)

PEAR MOUSE
Canned pear halves
Raisins
Sliced Almonds
Maraschino Cherries
Red string licorice
The children put these mice together using the ingredients above, then gobble them up!

MICE ACTIVITIES
Make a silly story. On separate large construction paper circles write each child's completion to this sentence: "If you give a mouse a ________________, he will _______________________." Allow child to illustrate the page. Bind the pages between tan construction paper cut slightly larger than the pages. Add whiskers, facial features and paper ears.

Make mouse puppets. Glue a paper nose and paper eyes to the flap of a brown lunch bag. Use a black crayon to add whiskers. Glue two brown paper (cut from a brown bag) circles to opposite side of the back for ears. Tape a brown yarn tail to the back of the bag. The children may use these for free play or when you reread the story have the puppet politely ask for what is next in the story. When you read "....he's going to ask for a glass of milk," students (mouse) should respond..."May I please have a glass of milk."

CLAY MICE
Submitted by Carol
We used an air drying clay (play dough)  that we died 3 different colors with food coloring and showed the children how to make a little mouse shape.  Larger in the rear and smaller and more narrow for the face part.
We cut our ear shapes from coffee can container lids (red, yellow, black).
We used small colored beads for the eyes and black beads for the noses.  The whiskers were made from the bristles of a brown broom and the tails were  made from pipe cleaners.  To further emphasize the letter "M" we died  all of the m's that we found in boxes of  Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Alphabets.  The children pushed the m's into the sides of their mice.  We took a picture of all of our class mice because they were so cute.

MICE
Submitted by Marla
During our unit on mice, we made them from those great big pasta shells.  The shell is the body and head all in one.  (Use your imagination here!) We tacky glued on two  elbows for the ears, let dry and then painted the entire thing
gray.   The next day we added wiggly eyes, tiny pom pom noses and yarn tails. We even made little nests from recycled milk cartons to take them home.  The children loved these and they turned out to be adorable.  It was an inspiration
in the spaghetti aisle of the grocery store one day and it worked out great!  :)

MOUSE THEME
Submitted by Betty
I had a rough time finding ideas on mice sooooo with the help of  "Mailbox" magazine, I came up with a few ideas and am now looking forward to my unit.  There are soooo many books about mice, with the biggy being "If you give a mouse a cookie...".  In dramatic play, we are going to add baking equipment to the dramatic play area. I put a small tray out and am just going to let them stir and line up bottle caps as cookies.  Thought I'd have out some construction paper , scissors, etc. and see if they can create some of their own "cookies" and "cheese".
   In art, I thought we could marble roll and then have the child find one dry spot to thumbprint a mouse (adding ears, whiskers, legs, etc. with an ink pen).  Don't you think they would just love going home and asking mom or dad to find the mouse?   In the fine motor center, I am going to try to have them try a variety of ways to poke or make holes in pieces of "cheese", (yellow, white, and orange construction paper pre-cut in various shapes).
   In the Math Center, I thought of creating a counting game with the cookie-like cereal pieces.

MOUSE A COOKIE
Submitted by Robin
I love the book If You Give A Mouse A Cookie!  I gathered up all the things that were in the story.....A plastic cookies....a tiny broom,....crayons.....pen....small cloth for a blanket and pillow......a small box to make the bed and so on.  I made a pair of mouse ears and attached them to a head band.  When I read the story someone gets to play mouse and wear the ears. and the other children select something from the box to give to the mouse. As I read the story the mouse goes and collects the items and when the story is done everything is back in the box and ready to put away.  The children like to take the box in small groups and one "reads" the story while the others take turns doing the rest.