Coming up this week we have our "Ornament Extravaganza!" at school - it's a night when we set up tables in our gym and have different make and take Christmas ornament stations set up. Each teacher or team of teachers is responsible for coming up with a craft idea. this year I am making these super cute Christmas mice. I can't claim credit for the idea since I got it when one of my kinders brought me in a mouse she had made at home. I loved hers so much and thought it was such an easy and fun idea that I took it apart to make the template and started playing with color combinations! I plan to tie it into the "Twas the Night Before Christmas" poem (you know, "not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse". But, if you can't celebrate Christmas (or have students that don't) you could use it with Hickory Dickory Dock too! It really is the simplest ornament craft ever - hope you enjoy it!
Finished ornaments:
Materials:
felt (at least 2 coordinating colors)
pompoms (7mm or 5mm)
googly eyes (I used all different sizes)
Pipe cleaners (in colors that coordinate with the felt)
Template: Click here and print onto cardstock.
Step One: Pick two coordinating colors for your mouse. Trace your templates onto the felt - I found that sharpies work best for this.Cut out both pieces.
Step Two: Snip two small slits in the body of your mouse. Start small, because it's easier to cut a little more if you need it, but if you cut too big of a slit now the mousie's ears won't poof up like they should :) The easiest way is to fold the body roughly in half (hamburger fold) and snip at the fold.
Step Three: Fold the ear piece in half and thread it through both slits, poofing it up on either side once it's through.
Step Four: Make an X with fabric paint for the whiskers.
Step Five: Add the nose and googly eyes with a glue gun. There was a bit of a disagreement amongst my children (my perpetual helpers ) as to whether the nose should go on the whiskers or under it - I'll let you decide :)
Step 6: Choose a tail type - either a pipe cleaner tail (wrap it around a pencil to make it curl) or use some felt scraps to cut a free form tail.
Your mousie is now ready to nestle in the branches of your Christmas tree!
Alright, next up is a quick graphing activity. I hope you enjoy - I love to pull out graphing activities like these because even though graphing is not on our pacing calendar (how in the world did that happen?!) I find that we still need to review the skills from time to time - plus my kids love graphing so they think it's a treat after all that addition and subtraction! Oh, by the way, what do you call the "+", "=" and "-" symbols? Our district has said that we may no longer use "plus" or "minus" or "equals". For example, if the addition sentence was "4+4=8" I would have to say "4 added to 4 is the same as 8". Personally I'm not sure why students can have an English vocabulary of thousands of synonyms, but they can't be expected to remember that "equals" is the same as "the same as" lol. I tend to read mine both ways just to cover my butt, but I'm pretty sure the middle school is going to be confused when these kiddos come up the grades since they are not teaching that terminology. Also, I can't imagine these kids in their first jobs, talking to a fast food manager "I can't find the "the same as" button on the cash register!" Hopefully all the older generations will learn this new way of reading math so that we're all on the same page.
Snowmen Graph by Jennifer
2 comments:
How cute are those mice! Thanks for sharing.
Laura
Kinder Kraziness
We made those cute little mice when I was a kid, but I think ours had a candy cane tail. Memories.
2B Honey Bunch
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