The Mitten

Today we read The Mitten, by Jan Brett.  I remembered that the author provides free printables on her website.  (Get yours here)
I printed two mittens and a page of characters.  We looked at the illustrations in the book and colored the animals accordingly.

I cut everything out and taped the animals onto craft sticks.  I also taped the mittens together (I was planning on having A lace them together, but she was too excited to act out the story)

We read the story again and A follwed along and put the animals into the mitten.  When the bear sneezed, she shook all of the animals out!

A read the story over and over and over, using her props.  The poor mitten did not hold up well.  I'm thinking of printing out a set on that has already been colored, using cardstock and laminating it. 

We'll be doing more mitten activities in the next few days.  I'm thinking we'll use this set again.  I'll lay the animals out, have A close her eyes while I put one inside the mitten and then have her tell me which animal is missing.

If you haven't read The Mitten (or any of the other books Jan Brett has written), you should check it out!  I like that the animals she uses are not the typical animals in toddler books (pig, cow, puppy, etc.)  A learned to identify a mole, badger, and hedgehog...all animals that she wasn't familiar with.