"Gingerbread Mouse" Art Lesson for Kids
Grade Level: 2nd - 3rd grade
Time Required: 2 45 minute class periods
Objective: Students make a fun cut paper collage of a Christmas gingerbread house inspired by the book Gingerbread Mouse.
Vocabulary:
Stencil
Recycled
Two Dimensional
Stencils
Effective
Drop Shadow
Art Materials:
Brushes – round and flat
Pencils, scissors, hole punch brown paper, cotton balls, glue
"Gingerbread Mouse" by Bratun
Gingerbread Mouse is a sweet and imaginative story about a little mouse who takes up residence in a family’s homemade gingerbread house at Christmas time. In this lesson plan, students celebrate the holiday season by creating a festive collage of a gingerbread house in colored pencils, paint and paper.
|
1. Create background by showing students how to paint a 9x12 piece of paper any way they want with tempera. |
 |
|
2. Next, demonstrate how to draw a simple house and trees (cones shapes) on white paper or card stock. Cut these shapes out and use as stencils for the following steps. |
 |
|
3. Have students then use their house shape stencil on brown paper. You could incorporate a bit of recycled material by using brown paper bags if you like. Cut out the house. Cut a snowy roof from white paper. |
 |
|
4. Next, have students design and cut out all the shapes for their house and final art out of colored paper. Size the red window shutters and upstairs yellow window shapes accordingly so that shutters open and close. Cut the “ice cream cone trees” out of the brown paper. |
 |
|
5. Next, show students how to put their house together. Center the yellow window shape on the red shutter piece and glue down. Glue just the center of the entire window piece leaving the shutters to open and close. |
 |
|
6. Making candy: Talk about all the different kinds of candy to make! Colored pencils, crayons, markers or paint can all be used. Cut it all out. |
 |
Chimney and smoke: Cut out a chimney and create smoke by pulling apart a cotton ball and gluing it down.
Candy on rooftop: To give candy the dimensional look shown here, attach pieces with just a dot of glue. When dry, gently pull up the edges to create a bit of a drop shadow.
Snow and trees: Paint snow on the ground and trees. Decorate the trees with “sprinkles” made by using a hole-punch and colored paper. Use a dark brown colored pencil and draw a bit of cone texture on the cone.
Mouse: Have students make their mouse peeking out of the window! They can draw their mouse directly on the window paper or make the mouse separately, cut it out and glue it down.