Mousekin's Golden House Kindergarten Arts Integration

After kindergarten classes went to the pumpkin patch they followed up the experience with an arts integrated lesson based on the book Mousekin's Golden House. This is a very old book that is no longer in print and written and illustrated by Edna Miller. It weaves in the idea of composting, nocturnal, hibernating, predators and migration concepts all into a wonderful story about a mouse who discovers a discarded jack o lantern in the woods. Students created a jack o lantern by tracing different shaped pumpkin templates and then cutting it out. The next step involved creating a torn paper mouse which was a little frustrating for some, but students persevered keeping in mind that all mice look different so it was OK if they ended up with a different size mice. Next they had to orient their pumpkin in the correct position onto a brown background paper to cover their mouse. The final step and the most fun of all was receiving a handful of cotton fluff to create a bed for their mouse, just like Mousekin had in his house. This project is a great example of incorporating literacy and science with the arts.