Do you love using this book in your classroom as much as I do? The Mitten, by Jan Brett, is a perfect read aloud for those winter months in your classroom! I created this set of 16 Mitten themed activities to go with the story. Your kids will love the activities, and you will love that everything is already planned out! To get my set of Mitten activities, click the link at the bottom of this post.
After reading the story, we create a story map like the one shown. This is a great way to discuss the title, author, characters, and setting. These words can often be confusing for young learners, so the more that they hear them, the better. I used poster board, but you could also use a pocket chart so that you can re-use the picture cards year after year.
The Mitten is a valuable book for teaching sequencing. After reading the book, the kids help me sequence the story in the order that the animals entered the mitten. I created this paper mitten and character cards. The kids help me put the animals in the mitten in order. Their young minds amaze me by how much they can remember.
The kids love that the animals can slide into the mitten. I also created a black and white set so that the kids could take a set home and sequence the story for their parents.
This sequencing activity is available
here.
I try to incorporate both fiction and non-fiction elements into my reading lessons. I created these information slides for each animal from the story. The kids love to learn about animals, especially the uncommon ones such as the badger and the hedgehog. These slides are available in my Mitten set
here.
After learning about each of the animals from the story, we create our animal writing craft. Students choose which animal that they would like to write about, and then create the animal as shown. They then write facts about the animal. These make a cute hallway display!
(I have provided templates for all of the animals)
My young readers need as many books in their hands as possible as they are becoming confident readers. I created this PREDICTABLE emergent reader for my kinders. It mimics The Mitten, so that the kids can make the connection between text to text. It also gives the kids the chance to check the picture clues to help with unknown words. After reading the book whole group, and partner reading the book, the kids sequence the emergent reader.
When I introduce a read-aloud in my classroom, I love to use it across curriculum. This graph does just that. My kids choose which animal was their favorite from the story, and then glue it into a mitten. They then place their mitten onto our class graph. After creating our class graph, the kids transfer the data onto their own personal graph.
This little craft makes a cute winter display for your classroom. Your kids draw an animal from the story onto a mitten template. They then decorate the mitten, and display. Simple!
We love to sing in the classroom. This song is sung to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot." You can get a printable copy of this song
in my The Mitten pack here.
These additional math and literacy activities can be used during the day while you are reading The Mitten. They would make perfect word work, center work, morning work, and more.
If you would like to use these resources in your classroom,
CLICK THIS LINK! I hope your kids love them!
