My Teacher Ate PAINT!

I’m sure you’re wondering just what this post title is all about!? Well, eating paint of course!

Have you ever read this darling book?

That’s right, Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. This fantastic book is about three little mice who jump into jars of paint and then mix together colors as they dance around in paint puddles. The mice discover that red and yellow make orange, yellow and blue make green, and red and blue make purple. Well, if I’m talking about mixing colors, we might as well try it, right?! Good thing I have some handy dandy jars of mouse paint in my classroom!

I introduced this mouse paint to my kinders and told them that of course, I didn’t have a paintbrush, so I used spoons instead. I needed to see what colors were made when we mixed the paint together! I grabbed a piece of paper and taped it to my easel. Then, I started to mix away!

Whatd’ya know… the mice were right! Well, now I had this itty bitty dilemma. I got some mouse paint on my fingers and didn’t know what to do! The sink was too far, and we were out of paper towels. So… I had to lick it off! I wish that you could have seen my students’ faces when I licked the mouse paint off of my fingers. They were horrified! Do you think they wanted to try? Yes they did!

I gave each student a little dollop of each color of mouse paint and they mixed away exploring the different colors that they could make. Then, I told them that they could try it if they wanted! One of my kinders said.. “Miss Peluso, this tastes like my sister’s birthday party!” That’s when I let them in on the secret… mouse paint is really frosting! {Also because I didn’t want them to go home and tell their parents that I let them eat paint!} Well, there was no stopping them from there. They were LICKING their plates clean- hardly any of them wanted the animal crackers that I offered them to scoop up the frosting with!

I have to say, mouse paint is one of my favorite activities {I really like sugar :)}! It is a blast and the kids LOVE it- especially when they think you are eating paint! Go ahead and try it with your class, no matter the age. It is a guaranteed crowd pleaser!