Mitten Theme

There is something appealing about mittens! Whether it is their bright colors or interesting textures, mittens are fun to wear and explore. During the cold months of winter a mitten theme is just the things to warm up little hands and hearts!

Story Time

Caps, Hats, Socks And Mittens

 The Mitten Gift Package

  The Mitten Tree 

 My Red Mittens

 The 3 Little Kittens Who Lost Their Mittens

  Runaway Mittens

Language Activities

Circle Time: Create a class/group graph of the different types of mittens or gloves the children wear.

Read: The Mitten by Jan Brett… Print the characters from this book from the Jan Brett website www.janbrett.com .  Find or make a big white mitten.  (Two pieces of white felt sewn together works well.) Or purchase the The Mitten Gift Package that goes with the story by Jan Brett!

Literacy:  Have the children retell the story using these props.  Use them when you tell the story.  Or add Velcro dots to the back of the pictures to use them on a felt board.

Read: The 3 Little Kittens Who Lost Their Mittens- Cut felt shapes of three kittens, a mommy kitten, and the mittens, or buy a precut set like Dress-Up Kitties Pre-Cut Soft Felt Storybook ,help the children retell the story using the felt shapes. 

Game: Kitten Mitten Game- After telling the story, tell the children some kittens may have lost their mittens in the classroom. Give one child a kitten puppet to wear and hide a mitten in the classroom without the child seeing. Have one child be the looker, give him or her a kitten puppet to wear, ask the other children to tell the kitten if she/he is hot or cold to help him/her children find a mitten. Another way to play- hide many mittens in the room and you wear the kitten puppet, have children look for mittens and bring them to you.

Songs/Poems/Finger Plays
 (Try this poem with the kids, have 10 mittens cut from construction paper to use with it, toss mittens on the floor as you recite the poem.)

1 mitten
2 mittens
3 mittens 4
How many mittens are on the floor?
5 mittens
6 mittens
7 mittens 8
Now we need to lay them straight
9 mittens
10 mittens
Oh lets see
Just how many there will be.

(Count them with the children.  See if they can figure out how many "pairs" of mittens that is.)

Literacy: Copy the poem on chart paper, point to the words as you read the poem with the children. Add interest to the activity by wearing a funny mitten on your hand or using a pointer with a mitten on the end of it!

 

Music & Movement Activities
Mitten March-

The Freeze- Play the song the Freeze, from the recording Kids in Motion by Greg & Steve. Make the dancing even more fun by giving the children  Dazzler Ribbons to dance with!

 Motor Activities
Small Motor-

Mitten Lacing Cards: Make your own mitten lacing cards!  Cut a mitten shape from tag-board or some or cardstock, decorate, laminate, and punch holes around the outside of the mitten shape for a cute lacing card.

Large Motor-

Mitten Bean Bags:  Make beanbags out of old mittens that don’t have a match, you can use them for a variety of beanbag games.

Art Activities
Decorate a mitten! Provide children with a large cut out of a mitten from a strong paper or card stock.  Have a variety of art materials for them to use such as 9 ct. Washable Glitter Glue , sequins, rickrack, pom-poms, and more.  Let the children glue on whatever they would like or decorate however they wish to make their very own one of a kind mitten.  Hang the finished mittens on a classroom mitten tree!

Literacy: Have the children dictate a story to you about their mitten. Give them a story starter such as, "One day I was playing outside and my mitten..."