The Mitten

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The Mitten

By Jan Brett, G.P. Putnam Books, 1989

 

Concepts and Themes To Teach

  • Snow
  • Mittens
  • Knitting
  • Grandmother: Baba
  • Animals: mole, rabbit, hedgehog, owl, badger, fox, bear, mouse
  • Whiskers

 

 

Expanded Core Curriculum Skills and Activities

 

 

Compensatory Skills

  • Explore the feel and temperature of snow.  If you do not have any snow in the area, use instant snow which is available through several learning companies.  Snow will remain available for several weeks if kept in an air-tight container.  With some brands, you are able to add water again to refresh the snow after it dries out

 

  • Create a person-size mitten

Use two soft blankets, cut out and sew a large mitten shape. This makes a huge mitten big enough for the child to climb in and out of.  With multiple children, each one can represent an animal and get in the mitten.

 

  • Cut two large knee socks down the middle lengthwise and sew the two together.  Find small models of each of the animals.  Reenact the story by placing the animals inside.

 

 

Independent Living Skills

  • Food: Cut small pita breads in half, and let the children put animal crackers inside. Marshmallow cream, white frosting, or cream cheese (snow) inside makes it look and taste a little more appetizing, but the kids also ate them dry (!) and relished them. We counted how many crackers they put in. -Jan Fitch

 

  • Mitten Match: collect a variety of mittens, different colors and different textures.  Have the child find the matching pair.  This could also be a group activity for a whole classroom, placing all of their mittens in a pile, mix it up, and find the match (remember which mittens belong to which child, because they will not!).

 

Recreation & Leisure

  • Nikki was playing in the snow.  Discuss ways the child likes to play in the snow.  Bring winter recreation items to explore such as a sled, toboggan, saucers, and skis.  Explore thoroughly and practice positioning before taking outside to use

 

 

Career & Vocational Education

  • The boy in the story was gathering firewood.  Go for a walk outside and gather sticks.  Inside use blocks or lumber scraps, having the child pick up and gather the wood.  Put the wood in a wagon.  Demonstrate the use of a sled to pull the wood.

 

 

Visual Efficiency Skills

  • Make masks of the animals.  You can print out full color masks at the website: www.janbrett.com is a wonderful resource for all of Jan Brett’s books.  The children can pretend to be the different animals and crawl into the mitten