MITTEN, THE
Submitted by Marilyn
After repeatedly reading The Mitten, I did this activity with my class. I used masking tape to make a HUGE outline of a mitten on our carpet. Then I made stick puppets of the animals in the book. I just xerox copied the
figures and attached a craft stick. As I read the book, the child with the matching animal stick puppet got up and sat/laid in the center of the large mitten outline. They loved positioning themselves to allow for the rest of
the "animals" to fit in. Then we sneezed and the children rolled and moved out of the mitten shape. Of course, I had to do this a few times to allow all the children a chance to participate. It was a good activity.
This past month my "author of the month" was Jan Brett. We had a mitten week where I brought snow in from outside and filled the water table with it. The children had brought their mittens into school for the week. The
children had a ball playing with the snow. We also painted with water color paints in the snow. In the end it looked like rainbow sherbet. We measured each other to see how many mittens tall they were which was a good counting
lesson. I also did the story THE MITTEN however, I used a huge comforter and the children crawled under it and when the mouse went in I pulled the comforter off them. Of course there was a lot of laughing and silliness afterwards. I also went to the Jan Brett home page where there is many ideas for all her books. Coloring pages, lesson plans etc. can be found there.
Submitted by Sandra
We are doing The Mitten this week. I am sorry I cannot remember where it came from, but we used the idea of putting up clothesline. We had relays of putting the mittens on and then alternating person would take them off. They were so cute. We just leave the line up and they actually have fun hanging clothes.
Another idea was to cut a big mitten out (of card stock) and punch holes around it and then lace (I first prepare the ends with glue and let it dry to a hard pretend needle) and put the animals inside. After the Mitten, we read
The Hat (also by Jan Brett) Then we read Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing. What a fun week. We also read different authors interpretation of The Mitten. The Mitten Tree is cute and we also read the Three Little Kittens. I have had a fun week for sure!
Submitted by Tammy
We're doing activities related to "The Mitten" this week too. One of our favorites is to make 2 construction paper mittens, staple them together, and have the kids decorate them. They then get to see how many animal crackers can fit into their mittens.
Submitted by Rhonda
You could do a lesson on empty and full using the mitten. I am an elementary ed student and I just did a clinical on Jan Brett and I used this. It went real well. You could also use have children predict how many crayons that they can fit inside a mitten and then graph their predictions.
PUT ON YOUR MITTENS
Submitted by Marilyn
Put on your Mittens,
It's cold I fear,
It's that winter time of year,
Play in your yard,
But when you're done,
Pull off your mittens,
ONE BY ONE!
MITTENS
Submitted by Mary
Cut out a pair of mittens on the front of a file folder. Laminate for durability. Insert colored construction paper to correspond with the colors in the song. As each color is discovered in the song, pull out the previous color to reveal the correct color.
What color are my mittens? Red
What color are my mittens? Blue
This color rhymes with fellow? Yellow
What color are my mittens? Orange
What color are my mittens? Brown
This color rhymes with bean? Green
SONGS AND FINGER PLAYS TO GO WITH THE MITTEN
THE MITTEN (tune: Farmer in the Dell)
The mitten on the ground.
The mitten on the ground.
Heigh-ho! It's cold outside.
The mitten on the ground.
The (mole) snuggles in.
The (mole) snuggles in.
Heigh-ho! It's cold outside.
The (mole) snuggles in.
(After the last animal, all pretend to sneeze and fall out of the mitten.)
Mitten Music
(Where has my little dog gone) by Jean Rogers
Oh where, oh where did my NEW mittens go?
Oh where, oh where can they be?
Oh, I have looked high and I have looked low.
Oh where, oh where can they be?
sing and replace "NEW" with old, soft, warm, red, blue, etc.
Mitten Finger play
by Lucia Kemp Henry
Here is a mitten, (hold up one hand)
A snug, fuzzy one- (rub palms together)
With a place for my fingers (wiggle 4 fingers)
And a place for my thumb (wiggle thumb)
Here are two mittens, (hold up two hands)
A colorful sight. (hands back and forth)
One for the left hand (hold up left hand)
One for the right. (hold up right hand)
Here are OUR mittens, (hold up two hands)
As soft as can be (stroke the back of one hand)
A warm pair for you (point to the neighbor)
And a warm pair for me (point to yourself)
Puttin' On Mittens
(Theme: The Farmer In the Dell)
The thumb in the thumb place,
Fingers all together!
This is the song we sing
When it is mitten weather
(Tune - "If You're Happy And You Know It")
Each mitten has a mate, has a mate.
Each mitten has a mate, has a mate.
Can (child's name) find the pair?
(He/She) is looking here and there.
Can (child's name) find the mate.
Find the mate?
MITTENS
Submitted by Diane
"The Mystery of the Missing Red Mitten" by Steven Kellogg. This is the story of a little girl who loses her mitten while playing and can't find it. After searching with her little dog, she finally finds inside a melting snowman's chest where it looks like his heart. A very cute story and we then make a snowman with a mitten heart to take home. I also usually poll my class as to who likes gloves and who likes mittens and then chart it cutting their hands out in the color of their choice in either a mitten or glove shape. We hang it for the month of January.
Mittens:
Submitted by Carol
We start by discussing same, different and matching
Materials: scissors, white paper, paint - we used magenta, turquoise, yellow, purple, eye droppers
Fold 12"x18" white paper in half
Trace mitten shape so that when cut mittens will be attached
Instruct chldren to cut shape without unfolding paper - Have children use eye droppers to drip their choice of colors on one side of fold
They fold over the mitten shape and smooth
When the children open their mittens they are so pleased with their creation
When paint is dry I cut mittens apart and attach a piece of yarn and hang to display in our classroom
THE MITTEN BULLETIN BOARD
We have a paper tree in our classroom. January is hard to decorate the tree.
We decided to have a mitten and snowflake tree. The children made mittens and then we punched holes and they laced the mittens together. We then hung them on the branches of the trees. |
