The Mitten - A Folktale and Mini Preschool Unit

An old Ukrainian folktale called The Mitten tells of a mitten lost on a cold winter's day.  Slowly, one by one, the animals of the forest climb into the mitten.  Eventually, the mitten, bursting at the seams, can hold no more.  It busts open.  All the animals scatter and the mitten is found, broken into pieces.

We read several versions of the folktale.  Each altered the details slightly, but the main idea remained intact.  Every reading delighted our youngest son.  He laughed as the animals moved and squeezed to get inside the mitten, and laughed harder when the mitten burst open.

Since he enjoyed the folktale so much, I added a few learning activities based on, or related to, the story.

He completed some worksheets and an activity from Enchanted Learning.  Several were focused on reading sight words and recognizing beginning consonant sounds.  Others involved matching and counting.  Then, we made a mitten to reenact the story by stuffing pictures of forest animals inside the mitten.  {The one pictured above is his 'fixed' mitten.} 

Afterward, I pulled out his Winter Pocket Folder that I had made him last year. 

He completed several of the hands on activities like matching colors...

putting numbers in order...

and matching shapes and scenes.

To end this mini preschool unit, we read The Hat, by Jan Brett.  Written as a companion book to The Mitten, the book, The Hat, depicts a little hedgehog who accidentally gets a sock caught on his head.  He tells all the other animals that it is his hat, and the results are comical.

Versions of The Mitten we found at our library:
The Mitten, by Jan Brett
The Mitten, by Alvin Tresselt
The Mitten, by Jim Aylesworth