The Mitten, by Jan Brett

After a little boy loses his mitten in the woods, all the forest animals want to snuggle inside where it is warm.

Materials

Mitten page colored and cut out
Twin size sheet or blanket
Food coloring
4-5 eye droppers or small spray bottles

Vocabulary

Wool (a material, not leather)
Snuffling (sniffing around)
Commotion (a hubbub or disturbance)
Talons (the sharp fingernails on birds)
Muzzle (the nose of an animal)
Stretch (to have elasticity to make it expand)

Introducing the Story

Talk to the children about all the different articles of clothing that people wear to stay warm on snowy cold days. Make a graph to see which children like better, mittens or gloves.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; develops growing awareness of ideas and language related to attributes of time and temperature.

Reading the Story

As you read the story, note the side pictures to the story. Show the children that the picture on the right shows which animal will be next to climb into the mitten. Can the children name the animal that will come next?

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation/demonstrates progress in abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story.

After Reading the Story

Act out the story using a large bed sheet as the mitten. If you have more children than animals in the story, make up a few extra so everybody can squeeze under the blanket (into the mitten).

Music and Movement

Sing The Mitten Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHiiVQL3NIU

Thumbs in the thumbhole, fingers all together

This is the song we sing in mitten weather,

When it is cold, it does not matter whether

Mittens are wool or made of fine leather.

Thumbs in the thumbhole, fingers all together

This is the song we sing in mitten weather.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding/ demonstrates increasing ability to attend to and understand stories, songs , and poems.

Give each child a real or paper mitten. With their mitten play a listening game. Ask the children to put their mitten behind them, beside them, in front of them, on top of them, under them, and on them.

Mathematics/Patterns & Geometry; builds an increasing understanding of directionality, order, and position of objects, and words such as up, down, under, over, top, bottom, inside, outside, in front, and behind.

Have the children sit in a circle. Hand one mitten to a child. Begin to sing or chant “We will pass the mitten from me to you to you, we will pass the mitten and that’s just what we’ll do”. Each time you pass the mitten, ask the children to help you think of new ways to pass (behind your back, over your head, as fast as you can, under your knees, etc.).

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing ability to find more than one solution to a question, task, or problem.

Discovery

Bring your cylinder shaped blocks to science today as well as a hand full of rubber bands. Show the children how to wrap the rubber band around by stretching it round and round the cylinder. Make sure to monitor any children who put things into their mouths. Depending on the size rubber band you are using, the children can also wrap them around small boxes, toilet tubes. You could also challenge them to rubber band two blocks together.

Science/Scientific Skills; begins to participate in simple investigations to test observations, discuss and draw conclusions, and form generalizations.

Blocks

Add animals to the center today, also a small scarf or doll blanket. Watch to see if the children act out today’s story even if different animals are used.

Literacy/ Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and predict what will happen next in the story.

Art

Cut out large mitten shapes to put at the easel today. Add some Epson salts to your tempera paints. As the paint dries on the paper, it should make tiny crystals that sparkle.

Creative Arts/ Art; begins to understand and share opinions about artistic products and experiences.

Sand and Water

Put snow in the table today. Encourage the children to put their mittens or gloves on and play in the snow using sand molds and measuring cups. Can you make a snow castle?

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer.

Put snow in the table today and give the children cups filled with water and food coloring. Show them how to use an eyedropper and suction up some colored water and squirt it onto the snow. (I recommend using red, yellow, and blue-primary colors). You can also fill spray bottles with food coloring and water to spray onto the snow. The colors drip into the snow and form new colors as they combine.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to use senses and a variety of tools and simple measuring devices to gather information, investigate materials, and observe processes and relationships.

Library and Writing

Give each child a mitten shape cut from a piece of copy paper. Encourage the children to draw a picture of an animal that crawled into the mitten. It can be one from the story or one of his or her own choosing. After they have drawn their animal, write, “A _________ squeezed into ______ mitten!” (A bear/cow squeezed into Roger’s mitten!) These can then be put together to make a classroom wall or stapled together to make a classroom book; The Amazing Mitten Stretch.

Dramatic Play

Add hats, scarves, mittens, and gloves. Encourage the children to pretend to dress up warm on a cold winter day.

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; participates in a variety of dramatic play activities that become more extended and complex.

Math and Manipulaties

Ahead of time, decorate the pairs of mitten page with each pair being different. Cut them out and put into a bowl or pile. The children match the pairs of mittens. These can be decorated from simple to more difficult depending upon the age of the children.

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; begins to make comparisons between several objects based on a single attribute.

Outdoor Play

If there is snow on the ground, practice throwing snowballs at a target. If not, use bean bags.

Physical Health & Development/Gross Motor Skills; demonstrates increasing abilities to coordinate movements in throwing catching, kicking bouncing balls, and using the slide and swing.

Transitions

Play Bigger Than, Smaller Than. Say, “I’m thinking of an animal that is bigger than a ___________”. The child must name an animal that is bigger. Do this with smaller than also. (Bigger than a horse, bigger than a mouse, smaller than a cat, smaller than a rabbit, etc.).

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing abilities to classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences.

Resources

Katy and the Big Snow, by Virginia Lee Burton

Materials

Small bag of flour
Small cars or construction vehicles
Extra hats, mittens, and scarves
Stack of newspaper ripped in half
cotton balls and several pinching clothespins

Vocabulary

Crawler Tractor (a tractor type vehicle that has a continuous roller instead of wheels)
Steadily (slowly and gradually not stopping along the way)

Introducing the Story

Ask the children to raise their hands if they like to play I the snow. Let them talk about some of the things they like to do in the snow. Next tell them that some people have to work in the snow. Getting to work can be very hard if there is a lot of snow on the ground. Our story today is about a helper named Katy who moves all the snow from the roads. I wonder how she does it? Let children have a chance to respond if they choose to.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; develops growing awareness of ideas and language related to attributes of time and temperature. AND Language Development/Speaking & Understanding; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information,experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other varied purposes.

Reading the Story

While reading, stop on the page after you read, “Katy had to stay home, not enough snow”. Ask the children how they think Katy might have felt. As Katy begins shoveling out the town, encourage the children to repeat ‘Follow me!” along with Katy.

Language Development/Speaking & Understanding; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information,experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other varied purposes.

After Reading the Story

Tell the children that Katy was big and strong and moved all the snow so that the adults could go to work and the buses and cars could bring children to school. Katy is kind of a hero and a good friend to the whole town. Ask the children if they have ever helped someone to do something hard. Listen as they tell about their own experiences. (One time I helped my brother to shovel the snow on our sidewalk. I helped my grandma to make a cake. I had to stir and stir. I was really good).

Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; begins to develop and express awareness of self in terms of specific abilities, characteristics, and preferences.

Music and Movement

Play Follow the Leader; making an obstacle course. Have the children follow you around, under, over, beside, behind, across, and inside parts of your classroom, playground, and school.

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; builds an increasing understanding of directionality, order, and position of objects, and words such as up, down, over, under, top, bottom, inside, outside, in front, and behind.

Discovery

Bring in a container of snow and watch as it melts. Do you see any objects in the snow? What happens to the snow? When the snow has melted, tell the children that you are going to put it back outside. Ask them what they think will happen to the melted snow now? When it is frozen, bring it back inside for the children to watch it melt again. What happened to the melted snow? Did it turn back into snow?

Science/Scientific Skills; begins to participate in simple investigations to test observations, discuss and draw conclusions, and form generalizations.

Blocks

Add vehicles and encourage the children to make roads by laying blocks end to end for them to drive upon. Encourage the children to make some of the buildings that are in and around town (police station, library, grocery store, etc.). Bring index cards, markers, and tape over so that the children can make signs to go with the buildings if they choose to.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; begins to express and understand concepts and language of geography in the contexts of the classroom, home, and community. AND Literacy/Early Writing; progresses from using scribbles, shapes, or pictures to represent ideas, to using letter-like symbols, to copying and writing familiar words such as their own name.

Art

Give the children pieces of construction paper to draw houses. Encourage them to add windows and a door as well as write their name on their house. When all have finished making a house, put them together on a map type background and hang low on the wall. Label each child’s house so they can use their finger to trace how to get from their house to a friends house.

Literacy/Print Awareness & Concepts; recognizes a word as a unit of print, or awareness that letters grouped to form words, and that words are separated by spaces.

Sand and Water

Dump the flour into the sand and water table today and pretend that it is snow. The children can use small vehicles or even shovels to pretend to push the snow aside. I would recommend that the children wear smocks and though flour is easy to wash from clothes, it is messy. Remind the children to not add water to the table!

Social & Emotional Development/Self Control; demonstrates increasing capacity to follow rules and routines and to use materials purposefully, safely, and respectfully. AND Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story.

Library and Writing

Encourage the children to try to draw maps on how to get to the playground from your classroom or how your room is divided into centers (birds eye view)

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; begins to express and understand concepts and language of geography in the contexts of the classroom, home, and community.

Dramatic Play

Bring in extra hats, mittens, and scarves so the children can pretend to go play out in the snow. Give them ½ sheets of newspaper and show them how to crumple it up into a ball. These make fun and safe snowballs for a snowball/paper fight.

Creative Arts/Drama; participates in a variety of dramatic play activities that become more extended and complex.

Math and Manipulaties

Put out a bowl of cotton balls along with a few clothespins or tongs. Label 5 plastic cups 1-5 with marker. Explain to the children that they must use the tongs to put the correct number of snowballs into each cup by using the clothespins or tongs. Encourage them to work in pairs. One child can put the snowballs into the cups and the other child can count them as they go in. When they have filled the cups, empty them back into the bowl and trade places as picker upper and counter.

Mathematics/Numbers & Operations; begins to use one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects.

Outdoor Play

If there is snow on the playground, challenge the children to roll really large snowballs (like you are making a snowman). As they work, tell them that they must be as strong as Katy like in the story.

Physical Health & Development/Large Motor Skills; demonstrates increasing abilities to coordinate movements.

Transitions

Ask each child to name something they like to do on snowy days as they line up or move to the next activity (I like to eat snow. I like to watch cartoons.). Encourage the children to answer using complete sentences.

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions; and for other varied purposes.

Dear Parents, Today we read a book about a helper named Katy who plowed all the snow from the streets of town. Encourage your child to be a helper around the house. Thank them for their service and let them know that they are appreciated.

The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats

Join Peter as he adventures out into the snow and how he discovers that when warmed, snow will melt.

Materials

Several days’ worth of newspaper or ½ sheet of newsprint per child.
Bag of cotton balls
1 bar of ivory soap, 1 roll of toilet paper, cheese-grater.
Piece of poster board cut into several simple boot shapes. Use a paper punch; to punch holes around the edge of the boot shape.
10 inch lengths of yarn with masking tape wrapped around one end.
Copy of the hot and cold items cut out individually.
A bucket of snow if possible.

Vocabulary

Before Reading the Story

Talk to the children about snow. Have you ever seen the snow? Have you ever touched snow? What should you wear to go out in the snow, why? What kinds of things do you like to do in the snow? Make a list of the things the children like to do in the snow. If possible, bring in a bucket of snow and pass it around as you talk of the snow.

Science/Scientific Knowledge; develops growing awareness and beginning understanding of changes in time and temperature.

Reading the Story

When you get to the page where something is sticking out of the snow, point to the new track and ask the children what might make a track like that? When you get to the part where Peter looks for the snowball in his pocket, ask the children what they think happened to it, why?

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing ability to find more than one solution to a question, task, or problem. AND Science/Scientific Knowledge; develops growing awareness and beginning understanding of changes in time and temperature.

After Reading the Story

Compare the children’s list to what Peter did in the book. Have the children spread out and act out the different things that Peter did while playing in the snow (Walk with feet pointing out, then in, dragging feet, pretend to roll a snowman ball, lay on the floor and make an angel). Act out anything else the children have experienced while playing in the snow.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story.

Discovery

Make a copy of the hot and cold items and cut them out. Have the children sort them accordingly. As they sort, talk about any safety issues that the pictures show (matches and lighters are not toys, when you go outside to play in snow it is important to cover your body, etc.).

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; shows increasing abilities to match, sort, put in series, and regroup objects according to one or two attributes such as color, shape, and size. AND Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; builds awareness and ability to follow basic health and safety rules such as fire safety, traffic and pedestrian safety, and responding appropriately to potentially harmful objects, substances, and activities.

Music and Movement

Ask the children if they can remember what the big boys were doing in the story (having a snowball fight). Ask the children why Peter did not join them in their snowball fight (he wasn’t big enough). Now ask the children to raise their hand if they have ever had a snowball fight. Tell the children that today you are all going to have a snowball fight. Give each child a half a sheet of newspaper or newsprint paper. Show them how to crumple it up into a ball. Use these to have a classroom snowball fight. Let the children have a few minutes to throw the paper balls at each other and you. Make sure to state any safety rules ahead of time (you may not throw your snowball near the fish tank, if someone is sitting in the dramatic center then they do not want you to throw your snowballs at them). When you are finished you can have the children try to throw their paper ball into the trashcan or a box.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multi-step directions.

Pretend to be snowflakes floating and twirling down to the ground. Now pretend that you are rolling a snowball. It starts out very small and as you roll it gets bigger and bigger. Now pretend that you are a snow person standing tall. Uh oh, the sun is shining bright and you are beginning to melt smaller and smaller until you are just a puddle on the floor.

Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; approaches tasks and activities with increased flexibility, imagination, and inventiveness.

Blocks

Tell the children that in the story Peter climbed a hill and slid down. Challenge the children to use the blocks to make a hill/ramp that they can slide cars down. If they seem stumped, show them how to take a long block and prop one end up on a smaller block to make a ramp. As they experiment with the ramp, watch how they solve problems of cars going off the side of the ramp or how to make the ramp go faster. What else can they make slide down the ramp?

Science/Scientific Methods & Skills; begins t participate in simple investigations to test observations, discuss and draw conclusions, and form generalizations.

Art

Show the children how to make a snowy day picture by taking a cotton ball and pulling it apart and then gluing it to a piece of construction paper. Let the children glue cotton balls onto the paper. When they are through, ask them if they would like to glue a person onto the snow. If they do, give them a person and ask them what the person is doing in the snow. Write their dictation down and attach it to their snow picture.

Literacy/Early Writing; begins to represent stories and experiences through pictures, dictation, and play.

Sand and Water

If possible bring in snow today and add gloves, spoons, shovels, and sand molds. Talk to the children as they play asking them what is happening to the snow? (it’s melting, it’s turning to water).

Science/Scientific Knowledge; develops growing awareness and beginning understanding of changes in time and temperature.

Make clean mud. Have the children take turns grating the bar of ivory soap into the water table. While the child/ren are grating, others can be tearing the toilet paper into small lengths. When the children are finished preparing the soap and toilet paper, slowly add water and have the children mix. This will turn into a thick consistency that you will be able to sculpt with. It will feel very slick. Remind the children that this is made with soap so do not put your hands near your face.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multi-step directions. AND Science/Scientific Knowledge & Skills; begins to use senses and a variety of tools and simple measuring devices to gather information, investigate materials, and observe processes and relationships.

Library and Writing

Give the children pieces of black construction paper and white colored pencils or white chalk to practice writing their names today.

Literacy/Early Writing; progresses from using scribbles shapes, and pictures to represent ideas, to using letter-like symbols, to copying and writing familiar words such as their own name.

Dramatic Play

Put out any dress-ups that encourage the children to practice their zipping, snapping, and buckling skills. Include gloves.

Physical Health & development/Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer. AND Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; develops growing capacity for independence in a range of activities, routines, and tasks.

Math and Manipulatives

Put out the boot shapes and the lengths of yarn. Show the children how to “sew” around the boot shape by going in and out the holes. This is hard for younger children so accept anything that they do.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads and using scissors.

Outdoor Play

If there is snow on your playground, go out and re-act all the things that Peter liked to do in the snow.

Transitions

Use the hot and cold cards. Hold up a card and ask a child to name the object and tell you if it is something that feels hot or cold when touched.

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurement; shows increasing abilities to match, sort, put in series, and regroup objects according to one or two attributes such as color, shape, and size.

Dear Parent, today we talked about things that are hot and cold. Take a few minutes and talk to your child about safety with hot and cold items. Matches are hot and can burn, so can a pot on the stove. Dressing appropriately when going out into the cold. If possible go for a walk with your child and enjoy the snow!

Resources