Mitten Loads of Fun!

We hit the ground running the first week back from break and it was so nice to be back in a routine.  We did a lot of mitten themed activities and the kids loved it!   Hope you enjoy them, too!!

Of course, we started the week reading The Mitten, by Jan Brett.  There was SO much to do with this book!!  We created a flow chart to sequence the events, used puppets from the Jan Brett website to retell the story, discussed the story elements using a mitten themed story map, and lots more! {I kept forgetting to charge my camera, so I didn’t take many pictures :(}

We also read, The Hat by Jan Brett and compared it to The Mitten.

{click pic to download}

I included a few mitten themed word work activities in our stations for the kids to manipulate, too!  We were working on blends last week, so that was our big focus.  NO clue why that danged mitten below turned out gray, but I couldn’t fix the darn thing to save my life!  Either way, the kids still loved putting the animals into their matching mittens

Graphics courtesy of DJ Inkers

The kids really liked this activity, too!  I bought several pairs of gloves & mittens from the $1 spot at Target.  I took three and stuffed each with different letter tiles and a word building mat.  Each little mat was programmed with a different blend.  The kids had to remove the tiles from the gloves and create words and then record them on the corresponding recording sheet.

Another one of our objectives was to get the kids writing with more detail and describing words.  I set out a little adjective activity that really made the kids think!   The kids had to choose a mitten from my little stash and use at least 5 words to describe it.  Some of my babies only had to write 3 words :)  They had to complete three sentences using their bank of descriptive words.  Finally, the kids had to complete a simile using The Mitten as their reference.  My kids LOVE similes!!

We did some pretty fun mitten themed math activities, too!!  Thanks to some FABULOUS teachers in blogland, I found some really great printables and ideas!  THANK YOU for sharing, ladies! 

I was so excited to find these printables from Heidi over at Swamp Frog First Graders.  {If you haven’t checked her out, you should!  She’s got TONS of rockin’ printables and great ideas!!}  We were reviewing picture graphs last week, so this really came in handy.  I had the kids survey all their friends in class…and me!…by asking everyone, “who was your favorite character in, The Mitten?”.  They tallied the results and then colored in the picture of their favorite character.  Then we created a picture graph and discussed the results!  Love it!

I also found these fun activities on Heidi’s blog and I was thrilled because we were also reviewing probability last week, so this was perfect!  I have 4 clusters of desks in my room, so I  cut out 4 BIG mittens and had my kids reach inside, pull out the character pictures, and tally their data.  They loved it!  We also discussed the idea of “certain” and “impossible” and I had the kids make predictions as to which characters they thought they’d pick most. 

I don’t have any pics of the probability spinner, but that was the kids’ favorite!  Thanks so much for sharing, Heidi!  Perfect timing :)

Here’s a little packet I put together with a few little math activities & writing ideas. I just didn’t get around to getting pics of everything in action…BOO for me :(   Hope it’s helpful!!

Graphics courtesy of Digi Web Studio