Kids Get Crafty: Walnut Mouse Racing

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Welcome to Kids Get Crafty! We have this little craft up our sleeve ever since the 6th December: Saint Nikolaus Day, when the children get nuts, raisins and Satsumas from St Nic during the night. Gently open the walnut shells and save the whole ones for crafting! We adore Walnut DIYs and today we made some very easy Walnut Mice, that you can actually RACE!
walnut crafts - racing mouse

The book

Die Stadtmaus und die LandmausVon der Stadtmaus und Der Landmaus by Katrin Scharer. This is actually a book based on an “old story” and there are number of slightly different versions of it: the city mouse and the country mouse seeing each other lives and see how in different they are. I believe that in the orginal the moral of the story is that the country mouse is “good and hard working”, whilst the city mouse is less so. Though this and other modern version, focus on the lesson of “lives are different and all lives have something good about it”… so the City Mouse comes and visits the Country Mouse: it is a little scared of the Cows and finds the corn fields hard to walk on, however enjoys the coziness of the burrow, the delicious country food and the spectacular rising sun. The Country mouse then visits the city and finds it big and noisy and far too busy. However appreciates the misty morning and the companionship of all the mice. I love this particular version,as the illustrations are fun and quite modern. A lovely book that we enjoy!
I had my copy sent from Amazon.de as it was a little expensive via Amazon.co.uk!! Check out Scharer’s other titles, they look wonderful! Many are based on old stories, but there are also new ones (I wish I hadn’t looked, I want to buy them now). A number have been translated into French.

The Nursery Rhyme: Hickory Dickory Dock

This craft goes really well with the classic nursery rhyme Hickory Dickory Dock! Here are the words to remind you!

Hickory Dickory Dock,
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down!
Hickory Dickory Dock.

 


Walnut Mice – Craft

Crafting with Walnut Shells is very “common” and very traditional in Germany and Austria and I look forward to sharing more ideas with you. Today, we make the lovely little mice:
Materials: per mouse: 1 half a walnut, some felt/ paper/ string/ fabric for ears and tail, felt tip pen, glue AND a MARBLE!
As I often do when crafting with a not quite 3 year old: I make one first – so Red Ted can see what we are doing…
1) Make a sample for the smaller children to see
2) Cut out ears and tail – we used felt – but you could have paper ears and a piece of string for the tail
3) Glue on – the tail is a little ticky: add lots of glue and “tuck it under”
4) Draw on eyes, nose and whiskers – Red Ted insisted that I do this
5) Once dried: place a marble under each “racing” mouse and then….
We made a little video of the mouse race, and I have to say, it reminded me of how “small” Red Ted really still is. I see him as such a big boy now, though in fact he isn’t even three yet. Sniff. Sniff.
So: Line up your mice on a book or small board and the tip the board to see which mouse will win!!


Hope you like our little Walnut Mice!

Don’t forget! Lots more Walnut Crafts here:

walnut-diy