Town Mice

Our theme this week is mice! There are no shortage of wonderful stories involving the little rodents, our first being the classic fable The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. I found a version by the same title at our library by Lorinda Bryan Cauley. Her version is just perfect for preschoolers; the illustrations are pretty and the text is just long enough to hold young children's interest. It's out of print, however, so a great alternative is Town Mouse, Country Mouse by Jan Brett.

Jan Brett's illustrations are always gorgeous, this book being no exception. Although written well, the text is a little longer and better suited for young grade-schoolers. Brett's version follows the the town mouse and country mouse along with their wives, as they each learn that there's no place like home. While the story is nice, it's the lavish, detailed illustrations that make this book so appealing.

The Cauley version is much more traditional, comparing the good, wholesome peace of the country with the costly opulence of the city. It read to me like the perfect propaganda for a "buy local" campaign, there was such an emphasis on good, healthy food.

Inspired by Emily @ Red Bird Crafts, we made our own storytelling stones. When I saw Emily's mod-podged rocks, I knew she was on to something, so we pulled out the mod podge to try for ourselves. Using smooth stones, scrap fabric, and mod podge, we created a town mouse and country mouse. I simply cut out a teardrop shape for the body, and three circles for the ears and eye. A C-shape worked great as a tail. One coat of mod podge was all it took!

For a game, I printed out pictures of food from Stock.XCHNG onto cardstock and cut them out. E decided which ones the country mouse would eat (healthy food) and which ones the city mouse would eat ("sometimes" food). She sorted each card to it's respective mouse (who enjoyed a fine meal).

Of course, the girls couldn't resist trying a bite or two themselves!