First snow and making the most of Mitten fun!

How fitting for the first day of December, we have our first true snow of the season here in Michigan.
To celebrate, try some fun and games with Jan Brett's book, "The Mitten"!
Last January when our homeschool group was still very small, I did some starter activities with this book, including having everyone bring a ton of gloves and mittens so we could mix them all up and do math with mitten games, like matching, pairing, sorting according to sizes and colors, etc.

If you can knit, which I can't knit or sew to save my life but happen to have one anyway, consider making a giant white mitten like in the story, then print out paper animals for the kids to color and put inside the real mitten as you read the story. Even if you don't have a big white mitten to use, sometimes a simple song will help take it off the page and into a game.

The Mitten: for Jan Brett's The Mitten
(to the tune of "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.
(After the last animal, all pretend to sneeze and fall out of the mitten.)

Here is a fantastic free page with animal masks to also accompany this book specifically. The Animals in The Mitten.

Here you'll find a free mitten pattern book for your kids to create their very own mitten story. Mitten Shape Book.

And of course, give them plenty of time to play outside in the snow!!


Happy Snow Day!!!