January Week 2

Read “The Mitten”

Play “mitten match” with all the mittens in your home. There are 6 of us, so we have LOTS. If you don’t have many (or any) mittens you could always create them from paper—plain construction paper or patterned scrapbook type paper.

Discuss what a “pair” is.

Arrange the mittens by size (Four’s mittens are smallest, Daddy’s mittens are the biggest. Etc.)

Look at pictures of the animals in the book. Discuss whether or not those animals could really fit in a mitten.

Sequencing: print/cut out pictures of the animals from the story; cut out a large mitten shape from poster board. Add the animals to the mitten in the order of the story. This would be a great felt board activity as well. Also, good for a discussion of ordinal numbers: The mouse is FIRST, the fox is SECOND, etc.

Place a small object into an adult sized mitten. Have child feel it from the outside and try to guess what it is.

Fingerpaint with mitten on! Luckily, we have a few mismatched mittens around that we will use for this, but if you aren’t that lucky…use washable paint and you’ll be fine!

This rhyme, with matching colored mitten cut-outs is mostly for Four (since Three has known his colors for what seems like forever) but knowing Three, after Four does it he’ll want to do it as well.

My poor little kitten lost her mitten
And started to cry, boo-hoo.
So I helped my kitten to look for her mitten.
Her beautiful mitten of BLUE.

I found a mitten just right for a kitten
Under my mother’s bed.
But, alas, the mitten was not the right mitten,
For it was colored RED.

I found a mitten just right for a kitten
Under my father’s pillow.
But, alas, the mitten was not the right mitten,
For it was colored YELLOW.

I found a mitten just right for a kitten
On the hand of my brother’s toy clown.
But, alas, the mitten was not the right mitten,
For it was colored BROWN.

I found a mitten just right for a kitten
Under the laundry so clean.
But, alas, the mitten was not the right mitten,
For it was colored GREEN.

I found a mitten just right for a kitten
Inside a grocery bag.
But, alas, the mitten was not the right mitten,
For it was colored BLACK.

I found a mitten just right for a kitten
Under the kitchen sink.
But, alas, the mitten was not the right mitten,
For it was colored PINK.

I found a mitten just right for a kitten
Inside my favorite shoe.
And this time the mitten was just the right mitten,
For it was colored BLUE!

Read “The Three Little Kittens”

Discuss Rhyming words (kitten, mitten) and make a self correcting game.

Pictures of rhyming words, different colors on the back so that the child can check it themselves.

Discuss animals in winter (check out books from the library on this subject) and some of the modifications these animals have to help them when it’s cold. Discuss hibernation, and build an indoor “bear cave” to hibernate in.

Read “Bear Stays Up.”

Play in “snow” with polar animals (Arctic Animals Toob). The snow will be shaving cream, that I may add glitter into. Three LOVES to play with shaving cream, so I’m 100% sure this will be a HUGE hit.

Practice drawing the letters of Three’s name in the “snow” as well.

Make play dough snowmen. I’m going to use homemade play dough, since it’s seems to be softer. Three is still really working on building up those muscles.

Giving credit where credit is due, a lot of these SUPER ideas came from a unit prepared by someone else--I've only highlighted here the ideas I think MY kids will like, you should check ou the source: http://momofmonkeys.wordpress.com/kindergarten-curriculum/unit-on-the-mitten-by-jan-brett/