First-School.ws
Mouse Craft or Greeting Card Heart Shapes Preschool Printable Activity

Materials:

• printer
• paper or card stock (or print directly to color paper for B&W template)
• scissors
• glue
• coloring tools for black & white templates

The mouse is an animal that is a favorite among young children and also a popular pet. Visit the mouse and rodents theme for various related activities.

The craft can also be adapted to a gerbil or rat or other small rodent, such as a guinea pig, hamster, etc. The rat is one of the twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac, therefore, appropriate for Chinese New Year celebrations.

The children will have fun making an easy and fun craft or greeting card assembled with heart shapes (except the eyes) and during the process many skills can be addressed.

The heart shapes animal crafts are appropriate for various holidays and pets events. There is a full body version that is more interesting and challenging suitable for kids over age four.

Craft instructions and learning activities:

• Learning activities to conduct before craft assembly:
  
  
  • Shapes & Colors Activity: Ask children to identify the shapes and colors on the template.
    
    
  • Numbers/Pre-Math Activities: Templates should be decorated and cut out.
    
    
    • Sorting & Sizing: Have the children sort the hearts by color and size (smallest to largest)
      
      
    • Counting: Count how many of each size there are. You may want to write numbers on the blank side to acquaint the children with printed numbers.
  
  
• Craft assembly: Show the small image provided in the template to help the children position the pieces. The greeting card option should be open and flat to assemble the craft.
  1. Paste inner ear hearts over larger ear hearts. Note: Use the smaller ear heart template only, for rodents with smaller ears, like the gerbil, guinea pig or hamster.
  2. Paste ears over large heart template.
  3. Paste eyes and nose.
  4. Optional: paste paper whiskers or use small pieces of pipe cleaners.
  5. Greeting option: Fold the card and help write a greeting.
  6. Optional: Write letter M m and the word mouse behind the craft, or the letter and word for the rodent you wish to present.

Templates:

• Close template window after printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero (minimum) if you have trouble fitting the template on one page or review Print Help.

Head Template (only 1 template needed)

Template    pink   or   gray   or   B&W

Greeting Card Template (2 templates needed)

Template 1    pink   or  B&W

Template 2    pink   or  B&W

Other decorations and ideas for the craft:

• Replace the paper whiskers template with yarn or pipe cleaners, about 3" long.
• Trace and cut pieces on fun foam, craft paper remnants or brown paper bag paper.
• Use plastic wiggly eyes instead of the eyes template.
• Tape a ribbon, string or a piece of magnet to back to use as decoration or ornament.
• Puppet: Glue the craft to a small standard lunch paper bag or to a craft stick for an instant puppet. Decorate the paper bag with additional hearts, buttons, etc.

Complimentary alphabet printable activiies:

Letter M Mouse

Letter G Gerbil

Letter R Rat

Mammals > Rodents >