Mouse Houses
One of my favorite unit of the year is our Wants & Needs unit. After learning about and differentiating between Wants & Needs, we discuss how this impacts the flora and fauna in our outdoor classroom. Needless to say, the opportunities for putting this learning into practice throughout the year is immeasurable.
However, one of our initial applications is in Fall and it might be my favorite. The class creates mouse houses for our animal friends. It seems easy enough but there are plenty of steps, including but not limited to.
brainstorming potential building supplies we cou'ld find on the trail
sketching our initial design
researching potential guests
collecting potential building materials
hosting Mouse House construction day
adding food we think might attract animal friends
redesigning and adding more food as needed
creating a Mouse House real estate advertisement
using the trail camera to document our guests
journaling about what we see, predict, and hope for
constructing an epic Mouse Mansion at the end of the unit
While the mouse house unit ends, it opens up a whole new realm of possibilities with our Children’s Wisconsin collaboration. Children’s Wisconsin (formerly Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin) and I have a yearlong classroom collaboration that entails many unique and wonderful opportunities focused on wants & needs. I can’t wait to share some of our highlights.
