The Mitten

Citation:

Brett, J.  (1989).  The mitten.  New York:  G. P. Putnam’s Sons.

ISBN: 0-399-21920-X

A young boy named Nicki wants his grandmother to knit him a pair of white mittens. When Nicki drops his white mitten in the snow he carries on without realizing it is missing. Soon enough, one by one the animals find the mitten and crawl inside it. First comes in the mole, then the rabbit and many more wonderful animals become quite cozy inside the mitten.

This book is great for children between the ages of three and five years of age because the language is simple and the story is easy to follow along. However, there are a few words used periodically that the children may not understand which in fact is a good opportunity to take this reading one step further to find out the meanings of these words.

The illustrations in the book are wonderful and intricate. The animals are presented with such great detail and the mini pictures on the column of each page reveal what is about to happen on the next page. Normally the children do not pick up on this the first time this story is read to them. However, after a few readings some of the children might notice these illustrations and whole new excitements are created for them. With her illustrations, Jan Brett does a wonderful job of creating the winter mood.  With the snow covered trees and the white blanket of snow on each page – the mood is elaborately created to snuggle in front of a fireplace with hot coco.

Provocations for this book would be to discuss different types of animals; their size, colour, what environment they live in, etc. I would also do a discussion about colour, for example, if we were to place a red object on top of a red cloth would it be easy to identify. I would also do an activity about space/area and how we would be able to fit our items into that space.

*In terms of space and area we could use anything such as mitten, pillow case, box, backpack etc.

The four different ways to tell this story:

Felt board story

Readymade felt board and felt characters purchased at 3H Craftworks   www.3hcraftworks.com

Pieces needed:

Felt board

Felt Characters:  Nicki, Baba (grandmother), mitten, animal characters from book.

*Felt story purchased from 3H Craftworks includes animals from story plus additional animals.

The story can be told by memory with the exception in mind that the felt pieces from 3H Craftworks include animals that are not in the story and the mitten is not white.  It is important to make sure that all the pieces used for this felt story are previously prepared and set aside in the order you will be using them so that while you are telling the story to the children, you will not have to look for your characters. 

Reading the Story

Needed:

Story book

White sheet

Group of eight children (eight animal characters)

Use a big white sheet as the mitten and while reading the story assign each child or have them volunteer to be the part of an animal character. Once you come to the part in the story where that animals go inside the mitten; the child will then go under the big white sheet.  By the end of the story, all the children will be under the sheet.

Character Masks (laminated)

The masks can be downloaded from Jan Bretts’s website -http://www.janbrett.com/mitten_masks_main.htm

Needed:

8 Masks

8 Popsicle sticks

The children can use these masks to play with in various ways:

The children can re-enact the story

Make up a new story

Learn in more detail about the specific animals. For example, what they like to eat, what colour they are and whether they fly or not.

Mittens Made Out Of Construction Paper

Needed:

Mitten cut outs (laminated)

Animal Crackers

Cut the mitten on the fold and glue the edges closed leaving the wrist part open. Using animal crackers have the children discuss the sequence the animals go into the mitten and place them into their mitten in correct order.

After we have read the book, three possible extensions would be:

Have a discussion about how the animals might have felt when inside the mitten.  When children start conversing many times they will begin to relate stories to their own experiences. Communication is always a good way to get children to share their ideas and thoughts and when it is suggested to ‘turn to your neighbor and share ….’ there is never a quiet moment.

Another extension to this book would be to take several mittens and sporadically place them in the playground prior to the children arriving. Inside each mitten would be a picture of an animal – they do not only have to be the animals that were used in the book but could be animals from all over the world.  The children would come across these mittens and again, this opens up another path for dialogue, this time more geared towards the animals they found in their mitten.

Songs are always a great way to follow up with story books. Songs can be made up by you or downloaded from the internet.  Here is a nice song I found online that most children will already know the tune to.

Mitten Song
Sung to: The Farmer in the Dell
The mitten in the snow
The mitten in the snow
Help us please so we won't freeze!
The mitten in the snow.
The mole squeezes in
The mole squeezes in
Help us please so we won't freeze
The mole squeezes in!
(Continue verses with each animal in the order they entered The Mitten in the story)
The bear sneezed us out
The bear sneezed us out
Oh no, now we might freeze
The bear sneezed us out!