Time Required: 20 minutes

Materials

• Mouse Paint by Ellen Stollt Walsh
• Red, blue, and yellow powdered tempura paints
• Clear dishwashing liquid
• Large sheets of plastic
• Newsprint or butcher paper
• Shallow containers for holding paint.

Set up

• Cover an area with plastic sheeting, both the floor and lower part of the walls.
• Tape large sheets of newsprint or butcher paper onto the floor and walls.
• Mix one part powdered tempera paint with two parts clear dishwashing liquid. Set out dishes of yellow, blue, and red.
• Keep plenty of soapy water nearby for clean up.

Directions

• Read Mouse Paint aloud with the children one-on-one or in very small groups, depending on the number of volunteers. Point out how the mice change colors when they mix with other colors.
• Follow the reading by allowing the children to be like the mice and do some finger painting and color mixing of their own.
• Dress babies in their bathing suits or diapers and set them on and in front of the paper.
• Set a dish of red, blue, and yellow paint in front of each child and allow them to dive into the colors and explore what colors they can make.
• When a sheet gets overloaded with paint, replace it with another sheet to continue the discovery.
• You may want to make color copies of the illustrations from the book to laminate and point to as the babies play.
• When the little ones start to lose interest, hang their art work to dry.
• Soap and water is all you need for a thorough clean up.

Volunteer Involvement

Assign volunteers to:

• Sit individually with children to help them discover the joys of mixing paints. Coach your volunteers about the importance of letting children make their own discoveries with the paints.
• Reinforce and describe what is happening while children are working. For instance: I see that you are mixing blue with yellow. I wonder what will happen to the yellow. It looks like green now. What lovely strokes you are making with the colors.
• Encourage interaction and model new possibilities while not restricting a childs discovery.

Family Involvement

Encourage families to:

• Work with colors with their very young children by mixing colors in the bathroom on bathtub walls.
• Mix dishwashing detergent with tempura paints to ensure easy clean up.

Community Connection

• Take children on a color walk.
• Read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and when children find colors around them, make up a rhyme, such as: Little Babe, little babe, what do you see? I see a red truck zipping past me.

Adaptations

• Help babies by positioning them in front of a mirror where they can see their reflection. Mix the colors onto the surface of the mirror by coloring in the features and clothing of the baby.
• Be sure to talk about what you are doing while keeping the focus on the baby.
• Colors easily wipe away to start more color fun.