The Mitten Lesson Plan Ideas
Toddler and Preschool Winter Activities Using Jan Brett's Book
Jan 1, 2009
Introduce this popular winter theme by reading an equally popular book, The Mitten by Jan Brett [Penguin Group, 1989] during Circle Time, or when it’s a good time to settle down for a fun loving story about animals who try to fit in one small, rather flexible, mitten.
The Mitten Math Activities
Teach your child the best way, through play! Creating these interactive and educational games can be as easy as you wish, depending on the time and effort you feel in putting towards printing and creating the materials.
Mitten Match File Folder Game
Have this File Folder Game ready for introduction after you read The Mitten. Printouts can be found at Preschool Printables. Using self adhesive velcro, encourage your toddler or preschooler to match the colors. For older preschoolers, add a little literacy into the game by taking notice of the words printed on the mittens. Help them sound out the words, or recognize the first letter in each color.
The Mitten Patterns
Marcia’s Lesson Links has a great print out to be used for several different things towards The Mitten lesson plan. This reproducible sheet offers several prints of each animal in which you can teach your child about patterns, like ABA, ABBA, and AABBCC, etc. You can also use these to play a game of Concentration, having your child match pairs.
The Mitten Art Activities
More than what is listed can be done with this winter theme. Be creative, have fun, you know your child the best. Offer him plenty of room for artistic expression in whatever way you can.
Homemade Mitten
Using a pattern you can find on Jan Brett’s website, or any mitten pattern, print two (left and right) on durable card stock or plain construction paper. With a one-hole puncher, punch holes along the edge of both mittens (except for the bottom where the hand slips in). Offer a piece of yarn, string, or pipe cleaner to your child for them to “sew” into the pattern, connecting the two mittens to make one (this develops fine motor skills).
Children can color or paint the mitten, and be sure to offer plenty of things to glue on like cut up cloth, buttons, felt pieces, ribbon, etc. You can also use the animal pictures from Marcia’s Lesson Links to stuff into the animal as you retell the story.
Painting Mittens
Print out several different sizes of mitten patterns and let your child use watercolor paint to decorate. When dry, to make this activity useful more than a few times, laminate or cover in contact paper. Now not only has your child enjoyed having some artistic outlet, but you can turn the creation into a math game by encouraging her to sort the mittens by size.
The Mitten Reading Activities
Introducing your child to the story is just one way of surrounding him with Literacy and Phonics at an early age. Offer plenty of opportunities by creating as many games you have the time for.
The Mitten Emergent Reader
You can do a search for an emergent reader for this story on the internet. Let your child decorate and color the pictures and read the story. Each day, at a different time than when you read the original story, go over the booklet and further the activity by creating a new visual aid.
Using the sentences from the book, write them or print them on paper. Laminate for longer use. Use the pictures of the animals from the booklet you found, color and laminate, and put next to each sentence. Tape these sentences to a wall with the picture next to each sentence and point to each word as you read the story to your child. Focus on certain words like "was" , "in" and "the". After a few times of this activity, see if your child can recite the words, being sure to point to each one as it is being read.
Remember, these are just some ideas to use for this old yet widely popular theme. You know your child best; offer him games and learning opportunities that will be certain to enrich his love for literacy while opening him up to math and art as well.
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