Hide the mouse

This activitiy, is a good option to develop colour recognition with reference to the seven colours of the spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet and to practise matching colours to a sensory standard.

Begin by telling a story to set the scene, using pictures and/or puppets to help make the story vivid:

Once upon a time, there were some mice who lived in their own litile houses at the edge of the field. Their village was called the Rainbow Mouse Village, and if I tellyou the colours of their houses then you will understand why. one mouse lived in a red house, one mouse lived in an orange house, the next mouse lived in a yellow house, and then there was one who lived in a green house, one who lived in a blue house, one who lived in an indigo house, and one who lived in a violet house. so you see, their houses were painted the colours of the
rainbow. Every morning the mice went out into the fields to get something to eat, and to play together. They were very happy, but they did have a problem. A big problem! close by the Rainbow Mouse Village there lived a fierce cat that liked nothing better than mouse for her breakfast. so when the mice went out to play, they always left the doors of their houses wide open. So if the cat ran after a mouse that mouse could just leap into its house and shut the door.
Can you see how the clever mice tricked the cat? Can you help the
mice hide from the cat?

The cat is very fierce, but not that smart. The secret is, if the door is exactly the same colour as the house, the cat can't see the door and she will go away.
Help the mouse to find the door that matches its house. The mice will love you forever.

 DEVELOPMENT OF THE ACTIVITY

 1. Give each child three mouse-in-a-house pictures and seven doors. You are the cat and the children must save their mice from you. To do this they must "close the house doors to hide the mice" i.e. they must cover each mouse with a door that matches the colour of its house. The children need only match the colours correctly and should not yet be expected to name them

2. Give each child a set of houses and doors to match. The number of houses will depend on how many you think individual children can cope with. Ask the children to "hide the mice from the cat." Again, as you go round the group
you can encourage children to self correct by whispering, "l can see the door."

3. Next, make the task more difficult by setting tasks where some of the doors do not match any of the houses. Give the children a set of 3 houses and 7 doors and have them "hide the mice."Finally, give out all 7 doors and only one house and ask the children to select the matching door for the house.

I Once the children are familiar with the game they can play it out of session time!

  

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