1/28/2013

The Mitten

We read the book, The Mitten by Jan Brett.  I have to admit I had never heard of this book.  Supposedly it's a classic, but I was unaware, so excuse my ignorance. It's a great book!  We had a lot of fun with it.
  
After we read the book, we did some line tracing to help Nikki find his lost mitten.  Most of the kids did really well with this - even the curvy lines.
 Then we did letter matching.  I made these animal pinwheels (the animals from the book), and on each clothespin there were two letters (one on each side).  We matched each of the letters with their appropriate animals.  The kids didn't quite know the letter sounds, which I was expecting, but they loved using their fine motor skills trying to clip on the pins.
 Snack time (did we forget to feed them breakfast today? what little pigs)
For some reason my cupboards are pretty bare on preschool days (OK most days), so popcorn tends to be the snack of choice at my house.  Just add some popcorn to a pan, fire up the stove, and voila, a snack. Don't worry, I don't add butter (Shh, the kids didn't notice). 
 Nala seems to handle the chaos quite well. 
 The kids, minus Trevor (he hasn't quite warmed up to the idea of a dog at preschool), give her lots of love and attention (and an occasional tease).  Blake and Stewart are the most enamored with her.  Come on Megan and Kelli, they NEED a dog!  Paper, rock, scissors over who has to get it.
 
Then we came in and colored our mittens.  The hardest part of this was trying to get them to only color the mitten that went with the color.  Afterward I cut them out and made them into cards.  Hopefully the kids can use them to practice their colors.
 Different day, same scenario.  Stewart and Blake have to know where Nala is at all times.


 On Thursday we talked about knitting.  I showed them my knitting needles and the hat that is on the needles and let them try to knit.  Then I gave them their own mittens to "knit". 
 They all did great with this activity, and it kept their attention for quite awhile.
Then we read the book, and as we read about each animal going into the mitten, we added that animal into our mittens.
 Snack time - popcorn again.  They kept asking for it, so I obliged and took the easy way out again.  It's actually quite comical/amazing to watch them shovel handfuls of popcorn in their mouths.  Nala was right there to clean up the spills.
 Next we came in and did a hunt to find the matching pieces that went to the story.


 We traced the letter 'G' and colored our grandma page (yucky picture, sorry). Then I gave them their mitten coloring cards.  Stewart said it was like Christmas. :) Glad he doesn't have high expectations. We had a great week reading The Mitten!


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