Once Upon a Book ~ The Mitten

The Mitten 

 by Jan Brett

Summary: After Nicki loses his new white mitten in the snow, the animals from the woods find it ~ and have fun squeezing in to use it!

Songs

The Mitten
Tune: The 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.
{Continue singing filling in the names of the other animals in the book}

Art Activity

Mitten Prints
 


We have several lone mittens hanging out around our house. You know ~ the ones the kids have pulled out to play with and then somehow one of the pair wanders off. :) We rounded up a lonely mitten and used it for this painting activity.

Needed:

• a lonely mitten
• White paint
• Blue paper
• a plate
• Your child

To Make:

1. Squirt some paint onto a paper plate.
2. Have your child put the mitten on his hand.
3. Let your child dip his hand {palm down} in the paint and press his hand on the paper to make a mitten shape on the paper.
4. Repeat until your child is done {or you are…}.

Snack

Snow Ball Cookies



Needed:

• Vanilla wafers
• softened cream cheese
• flaked coconut
• knife or spreading utensil
• bowl
• napkins

To Make:

1. Put the coconut into a bowl.
2. Have your child spread a small amount of cream cheese onto a vanilla wafer.
3. Dip the cream cheese side of the wafer into the coconut.
4. Enjoy!

Language/Story Telling

Sequencing ~ Use the animal and mitten printables from Jan Brett’s website to sequence the story with your child. Color the animals first and then cut them out. Can you remember what order the animals went into the mitten?

Math

Mitten Matching ~ Make pairs of mittens {you can find some templates here} and lay them out on the floor for your child. I made a variety of mittens from colored construction paper and spread them out all over our table. We looked for the same color match and used a clothespin to put the two together {a great fine motor activity too!}. We also used the activity to practice naming colors.

* Another option for older tots is to use old wallpaper sample books and make mittens from the different patterns and practice matching patterns.
 
Following Directions ~ Use the mittens from the Mitten Matching game and have your child follow simple directions. For example, “Pick up the green mitten and run to the kitchen” or “Put the striped mitten on your head and turn around”.

Animal Size Sorting ~ Use the animal printables that you printed off for the story retelling and sort them all by size from smallest to largest.

Fine Motor

Lacing Mittens ~ Print off this mitten pattern onto cardstock {make two copies} and punch holes around the outside of the two mittens. Have your child lace the two mittens together. When you are done, you can put all the animals from the story inside your mitten!

Games

Hide the Mitten ~ Using either the mittens from the Mitten Matching game or the ones printed off from the Jan Brett website, play a game of “Hide the Mitten” together, similar to Hide and Seek. Take turns hiding the mitten from each other and use simple directions and positional words to help your child find the mitten if they need help. For example ~ take 3 steps forward, look up/down, etc…

Toss the Mitten ~ Stuff a few pairs of socks into all those mittens around your house {if your house is anything like mine there are lonely little mittens all over the place!}. Pull out a laundry basket and play a game of ‘Toss the Mitten’ with your tot and see how many mittens you can get into the basket.

Mitten File Folder Game ~ color matching game to use for matching colors and color names.

Want to see what's coming next (and books we've done in the past)? Click here to see our Once Upon a Book webpage!