Mouse Paint

Mouse Paint by, Ellen Stoll Walsh, is a classic amongst primary and art teachers to help introduce the magic of color mixing.  Students learn the primary colors; red, yellow, and blue, are responsible for making the secondary colors by following some mischievous mice who make puddles and dance their way to making green, orange and purple.  The students love Mouse Paint because afterwards I let them make their own puddles and let the magic of color mixing happen before their eyes.

On day one, I have the students break into centers.  My first group of tables begin by coloring in a template of the three mice with crayons using the primary colors.  The other tables are my puddle makers.  In small groups they receive an 18" x 12" paper folded into thirds and get to mix puddles into the secondary colors.

On day two, students then took their paintings and added water to their puddles to activate the dried paint and fill in the white space with a liter tint of color.  This was a great opportunity to talk about value and have the students see how the same color can be perceived in lighter or darker tones.

Students then glued the mice down and added a border for the finishing touch.  

Great job kindergarteners!!!