Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The Mitten


The Mitten was written by Jan Brett and has always been one of my children's favorite books. Now that winter is here it's a fun book to read and study. I have never met a child who isn't fascinated by the story of all the woodland animals that found a home in a little boys lost mitten.

I was therefore, very pleased to discover that Enchanted Learning had worksheets and a printable story for the kids on the book, The Mitten. I have a little class I teach on Thursday mornings and this was the perfect book and craft for them. This Thursday morning class has evolved and changed since fall due to the kids that come and go out of it. Right now the children that are in this class are the perfect age to discover the story of The Mitten and delight over all the little animals.

To do this craft I first printed out the mitten pattern. Then I traced it over on felt and cut those mittens out. You then put the two mittens together and either sew or staple around them leaving the top open.




Then you print out this animal template and have the children color and cut out the animals. They then put the animals in the mitten to take home.





I printed the story from the same website. It prints out in full page so the kids can color the pictures. They also have worksheets that go along with the story.

The mittens turned out just adorable and the kids loved this little lesson. The one drawback is that you do need to pay for the Enchanted Learning site. I get so many things off of it though that the cost is well worth it!

Jan Brett also has her own website with tons of crafts to go along with her books. You can find it here. There is just a ton of stuff to do on her website. I haven't even begun to explore all the resources that she has there! You just have to go take a peek.

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing. I was wanting to get your opinion. Hannah is a going to be doing K next year. She is the one that is a total visual, kinsthetic learner. No auditory!!!! What would be a good phonics to start with. She has a hard time with letters still. I work daily with her. Just curious?

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  2. I know Zoo Phonics is suppose to be great for visual learners but I dont know much about it otherwise. I do think it's quite spendy too but you could probably google it and see what it's like. Also Time4Learning has a great visual phonics program.

    The problem with teaching phonics to visual and kinsthetic learners is that phonics by its very nature is auditory. If your daughter is only preschool now that wouldnt go to say that she will always be a kinsthetic learner. Pretty much all 3 and 4 year olds are more kinsthetic and visual learners than they are auditory.

    And most of us that are over 45 can attest to the fact that we didnt know our letters when we entered first grade because preschool and kindergarten just weren't a huge thing in the 50's and the 60's. So I dont think I would be a bit worried that she doesnt know her letters yet.

    You will also find that almost every prescool and kindergarten curriculum is already based on the visual learner because thats how that age learns. So Im thinking that almost anything that isnt too workbook based would work for her. Preschool/kindergarten programs are all designed for kids like her. I dont think you are going to go wrong in whatever curriculum you decide. Just stay away from the workbooks like Hooked on Phonics and CLE and such.

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  3. Love that book! It's one of Julia's favorites. The animals especially, but she's seen so little snow in her life that the pictures fascinate her!

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  4. Rachel!!! Imagine finding you on a homeschool website! Hmmm, could this mean that you are interested in homeschooling some day, or interested in teaching or is it just that you are missing me so you will read anything of mine! tee hee

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  5. Honestly, homeschooling has always intrigued me. And I do love teaching (second to being a mom), so it's probably a combo of the first two. Ok, ok, and I miss you... hehe!

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Thank you for taking the time to add to the discussion here. Your ideas and thoughts are always welcome!

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