Free The Mitten Activities & Printables for Kindergarten!
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The Mitten Activities Week Long Free Files
The Mitten by Jan Brett was one of my son’s favorite winter books when he was growing up, so naturally, it became one of the books that we read over and over again! The winter months are the perfect time of year for a mitten theme! Don’t you think?
When we set out to make a set of free activities for the book, we knew Jan Brett’s The Mitten would make a great addition to the printable pack.
The Mitten by Jan Brett (affiliate link)
Here is a brief summary of this Ukrainian folktale:
Nicki’s grandmother made a pair of white mittens for him. The young boy accidentally leaves one of his mittens in the snow.
One by one, to escape the cold, forest animals climb into the mitten. This mitten is filled with animals such as a mole, rabbit, badger, hedgehog and even a big brown bear.
The final animal to crawl into the mitten is a tiny brown mouse, and he tickles the bear’s nose. The next they you know, the bear sneezes, and all of the winter animals are blown free of the mitten.
THE MITTEN LESSON PLANS AND ACTIVITIES
Perhaps you have heard about our Engaging Readers Reading Comprehension units, but you have not tried the activities yet. Or perhaps you have, but you would simply love to add this book to your collection! [My hand is raised high). Well, you are in luck! This mitten unit is packed full of free printables and it is a great way to make this winter weather book interactive!
Deanna Jump and I created a week-long free set of extension activities for this wonderful book, The Mitten! [insert tears of joy]
The Mitten by Jan Brett Video
Here is a video version of the book that is read by Jan Brett! So, so GOOD!
The Mitten Read Aloud Comprehension Skills
Just like each of our story book companions, we included questions to guide you through this wonderful text. The idea is to use these questions to help guide the conversation vs. conducting a quiz show! These are reading comprehension questions that spark a conversation that students have with their reading partners. In this way, every student is involved as they dive deeper into each story.
Simply put… we have done all of the planning for you. All you need to do is PRINT AND TEACH! Let’s take a closer look at each day’s activities.
The Mitten Prediction Activity
Predicting is a crucial reading skill. It enables learners to use information from the text to anticipate what will occur in the story. When making predictions, learners imagine what will happen next in the text, drawing on their previous knowledge and the clues that were given by the author and illustrator.
For the book The Mitten, we asked the students to predict what would happen next after the mole entered the mitten. Here is the teaching slide for this activity that helps guide the student-to-student conversation.
Each day’s activities have a teaching slide to make your job easier! YAY! In a kindergarten classroom, we know you have a lot to juggle. These digital teaching slides make it easier!
The Mitten Retelling Activity
After reading The Mitten, students work together as they put the colored retelling cards in sequential order. Once all of the cards are in the correct order, students are ready to TALK! This student talk is so important for oral language development. Don’t skip it.
After the students have practiced orally retelling the mitten story with their partner (over and over), they complete their own mitten retelling strip! This practice of retelling the story transformed my students’ ability to retell a story without the need for support when it came time to test my students reading levels using the DRA.
This story sequencing strip is another way for students to practice oral language while incorporating the story elements in The Mitten.
Psst… you will see this activity in the Mitten Crafts section of this blog post.
The Mitten Inferring Activity
What is inferring?
Writers provide subtle hints or clues to guide you in uncovering more than what is evident. The ability to use these clues for a deeper comprehension is known as inferring. It involves going beyond the explicit content and discovering implied or suggested meanings from the details.
We take five days to include various reading comprehension strategies. One of those strategies is inferring.
In The Mitten book, we ask students to infer what Baba thinks. Your students can participate in this deep thinking regardless of grade level! If you are a preschool teacher, you may just have a discussion. Kindergarten teachers can ask students to draw or write about their thinking. First grade teachers may ask students to write complete sentences.
The Mitten – Making Connections Activity
Making connections in reading comprehension helps students relate to the text personally. It enhances understanding by linking the text to their own experiences, other books, or the world. This active engagement deepens comprehension and makes reading more meaningful for young learners.
This printable response page is used for making connections. We include a variety of response formats for those who wish to use a journal.
We love the depth of conversations that take place during our close reading. The response pages help see the students’ thinking.
In kindergarten, the images students draw help to convey meaning.
The Mitten Craft
You will recognize this activity from the retelling. But adding a cute craft to the retelling strip is like the sprinkles on top!
Each student made their own mittens! They were printed on card stock or heavy paper. Then, I used a hole punch on each of the sets of mittens. Students fired up their fine motor skills by threading the yarn around the paper mitten to make a pocket. The story sequencing strip is folded up and placed inside of the mitten. It is such a fun way to store this activity.
Story Telling Center
This classic story can easily become one of your literacy centers. Young children can bring their fun mitten craft to the center. Next, add a big book version of this favorite book so your students can practice interacting with the book and placing the events in the proper order. Jan Brett is one of our favorite authors for young children. She has so many books that incorporate well your winter activities. You can even turn that center into a Jan Brett author study and include some of her other children’s books.
Then they worked together to build the new den.
It is hard not to intervene and help the students when they start to falter, but those moments are when learning takes place. HINT: let the marshmallows get a little stale before you use them in the classroom.
The Mitten Sentence Study Activity
Here is a quick glimpse of the sentence and grammar study we included in the printables. Each week we look for sight words we know, then focus on grammar and writing mechanics.
The Mitten Comprehension Assessment
We also ask students (from time to time) to answer a few questions. This offers teachable moments and informs us of what we need to teach next. However, we can gather data on students’ comprehension skills during the student discussion period that takes place during the whole group lessons.
Free Printables for The Mitten
Here are a few of the other additional fun activities for The Mitten that are included in the download.
You will find all of the lesson plans for the literacy skills mentioned above, we also have a few math activities and literacy worksheets we think your class will love… all FREE! They include:
- The Mitten Characters Wordsearch – This is a fun activity where students look for the character names in the story
- Sort it Out Parts of Speech– Students sort words from the story by nouns or verbs
- Mitten Measurement – Students practice their math skills by using nonstandard measurements to measure the mitten.
- The Mitten-themed math journal prompts – We love using simple prompts to engage students in their math skills.
Learn More About Interactive Read Aloud Lessons
If you would like to read more about how these interactive read aloud units work, you may want to check out:
- Tips on How to Teach a Kindergarten Interactive Read Aloud Lesson
- How to Teach Reading Comprehension to Kids (Free Book List)
Find more book companion activities like this:
If you like this mitten activity unit, you may be interested in a few of our book companion-themed activities. We have done all of the planning for you.
- Little Red Hen Unit of Study
- Goldilocks and the Three Bears Unit of Study:
- Polar Express Unit of Study: Guiding Readers
- Creepy Pair of Underwear Reading Comprehension Unit
You can find all of the literacy activities for some of your favorite books.
FREE Reading Comprehension Unit for The Mitten
This free download is simple to grab. Simple click the image below!
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Deedee Wills
My teaching career allowed me to experience teaching in different classroom environments and grades. My heart belongs to early childhood education. My job is to make teaching FUN, ENGAGING, and EASIER. Welcome!
Hi, I'm DeedeE.
My teaching career allowed me to experience teaching in different classroom environments and grades. My heart belongs to early childhood education. My job is to make teaching FUN, ENGAGING, and EASIER. Welcome!
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23 Responses
Thank you for “The Mitten” freebie. I am going to use it this month. My district has a new reading series that we are suppose to be using with “fidelity,” and it is snuffing out the great literature we have at our fingertips. I cannot go back after Christmas and use the curriculum literature (UGH!). I am rebelling in 2018!! Happy New Year!!
You are so welcome!!! Happy New Year to you too! #rebelstrong
Thank you so much! I use all of your monthly guided readers/reading comprehension. My students and I love them!
You are so welcome! Happy 2018!
…Amy, this has been the story of my life also. I so…. miss the wonderful pieces of literature with extensions for crafts, lapbooks, and other projects. I know exactly how you feel! 2018 is my year to teach what is needed and those things that hold my student’s interests. Godspeed… and thanks Mrs. Willis and Deanna Jump for giving me back my “mo-jo” !
When I go to type in name and email to get this unit sent to me, it says working, and has for about 45 minutes.
Hi there!
I don’t see your email in the system. Can you try it again?
I have tried 3 times and it won’t go through. Suggestions?
Hi Deb, Your email may be blocked if it is a school email. It has been downloaded by about 1,500 people so far, so I think it must be something on your end. You can try another email or if you want you can email me. I am traveling right now and I would be able to send it to you, but it won’t be until Friday.
deedee@mrswillskindergarten.com
Nice post! My students and I love them.
How do I download this free lesson?
Just add your email to the box at the bottom of the blog post. If you are not seeing a box, it might be blocked by your school’s firewall, so you may need to do this at home or try another email address. You can email me if you run into a dead-end. deedee@mrswillskindergarten.com
How do I get above Free Hat and Mitten material?
You add your name and email to the box at the bottom of the page. 🙂
I love this activity
I would like to receive the free Mitten unit. Thank you!
Are you still stuck? I can email you a copy. Just let me know.
deedee@mrswillskindergarten.com
Love these ideas! Thank you!
Yay! You are welcome!!
Hi Dee Dee. I am going to do the STEM activity. How did you make the animals stand up with the paperclips?
Yay! I hope your class loves it!
I bent the paperclip so it sat at a 90 degree angle. Then taped the sticky-up part to the animal cards. Does that make sense?
Hi! Could I please receive these recourses? So great!
Hi there! If you add your name and email to the box at the end of the blog post, the free file will be sent to your inbox.