1-2-3 Come Do Some Nursery Rhyme Activities With Me

I plug in nursery rhymes whenever I can, so during our winter “mitten theme” my young fives enjoy learning “The Three Little Kittens”.

Since my storytelling wheels have been so popular, I decided to make “Rhyme Time” poetry wheels, to help practice the “retelling & sequencing” a story standards, using favorite nursery rhymes.

Each packet contains background information on the nursery rhyme, along with a colorful anchor chart poster of the poem.

I’ve included a BW version for students, to help practice reading and whatever other skills you are working on.

For example, using this “worksheet” beginning readers can circle rhyming words, color words, number words, or other sight words.

Reinforce spelling by having children underline “silent e” words; 1, 2 or 3 syllable words; vowels, or long and short vowels etc.

There are full color patterns to use for an independent center, as well as a sample to share, plus a black and white pattern, so students can make their own.

When everyone is done with their “Rhyme Time Story Wheel”, take a moment to retell the rhyme as a whole group, by turning the wheels.

To reinforce the lesson further, encourage students to “show & share” their wheels with their family, retelling the rhyme once again. Can anyone recite it?

I also have my students pick a partner and take turns sharing their wheels with each other. Sometimes we do this with our older, reading buddies.
This is a quick, easy & fun way to check comprehension too.

Since the wheel is cut into 6 equal parts, if you’re studying fractions, be sure and take a teachable moment to review that vocabulary and information as well. 

Another interesting way I teach "The 3 Little Kittens" nursery rhyme is with a "slider" craftivity.  This is a different option for practicing the "sequencing" and "retelling" a story standards. 

If you like both, simply use one as a center, and the other for an in-class, whole-group activity, or fun homework assignment.   

There are 2 outside slider options to choose from.  Pick your favorite or give children a choice.

Students color the story elements on the “slider strip” then cut and glue it together.

As they pull on the end of the “slider-strip” the various pictures go through the “window”, so that children can take turns retelling the nursery rhyme to a partner or reading buddy, then take their craftivity home to share with their family, once again practicing these standards.

I introduce the lesson by reading the colorful, poster-poem (anchor chart) then share my completed "slider craft” with my students.

I’ve also included a BW version of the poem for students, so you can use it as a worksheet.

So that you can quickly, and easily make an example, I’ve included a full-color slider pattern.

After I read the nursery rhyme, we recite it together, using the picture prompts on my slider.
I have them guess which element of the rhyme they think comes next, before I pull the picture through the “window”.

“Rhyme Time Sliders” are also an easy & interesting way to assess comprehension. 

Since March is just around the corner, today's featured FREEBIE is a collection of sheep-themed nursery rhymes, which my Y5s enjoy learning during our lion-lamb theme in March.  I hope you find them useful too.  

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for popping in. The sun is valiantly shining, despite some windblown clouds that threaten to cover the warm rays.

Maybe I'll get a bit of yard work done today...or not!  So many options and not enough energy.   Wishing you a fun-filled day.

"The most important part of education is proper training in the nursery." -Plato

1-2-3 come Do Some Winter Word Work With Me

Are you working on silent, or “magic” e word work with your kiddos? If so, I think they’ll really enjoy this Magic e Mitten packet.

Simply run the mitten pattern off on a variety of colors of construction paper.
I wanted mine to have a red mitten with a green cuff + a green mitten with a red cuff, so I ran off two of each page (one on red and one on green).

Laminate, trim and then cut the cuffs off so that you create puzzles for an independent center, or use for a “Magic e” Mitten Matching Game.  You could also use these for an “I Have; Who Has?” game too.

The packet also includes a Magic e Word Work journal. Students trace the word, add a “magic e” to the end (using a different color) and then write the new word that’s made.

Encourage students to look up words that they don't know and define them on the “new-word-to-me” definition worksheet, which can also go in their journal.

* There are also Mitten Math worksheets, where the word + an e ='s a new word,
* A magic e rules poster,
* Long & short vowel sorting mat, with matching worksheet,
* An alphabetical list of 86 magic e words, plus
* A pattern to make a magic e, mitten wand.

These make easy-peasy activities for your Daily 5 word work too. 

Another winter word work activity is the UG family of words.

There's nothing like a nice mug of hot chocolate when the wind is whipping up a winter chill, and since I like to have some sort of theme, when we work on a word family,  I thought it would be a fun to use a mug of cocoa.

This not only grabs my students’ attention, but makes the activities a bit more fun, and my kiddos seem to catch on more quickly, retaining the information better because of the graphic.

Since most mugs are also a 3D cylinder shape, I’ve incorporated this into the lesson, so that you can add a bit of math with literacy.
The packet includes:

* 2 Craftivities
* 5 worksheets
* A set of 6, pocket-chart sentence cards
* 3 Posters, plus
* 9, three-piece UG puzzles

Use the activities as a whole group activity, independent center, games, or something for early finishers, homework or your sub folder. 

When my kiddos have completed their lessons, they've earned a special treat for snack time, a cup of hot chocolate.  Mmmmm mmmmm good, especially after a chilly recess. 

Finally, I know a lot of teachers read The Mitten  by Jan Brett, so I designed a cute winter word work packet "Our Mittens" that reinforces verbs based on that story.

The packet includes two class-made books. Making a class book, is a quick and easy way to practice a variety of standards; contributing a page for a class book, is super-fun for your kiddos, and will grab their attention from the get go.

In the first book, Our Mitten, the teacher loses a mitten. As children find it, they tuck something inside. 

Here, I wanted my kiddos to take size into consideration, and think of something that could realistically fit inside a mitten.

On their page, students state their name and tell what they put inside their teacher’s mitten and why, adding an illustration.

The Animals In Our Mitten, is the next book. The cover and pages, are in the shape of a large mitten.  Children fill in the blank with an adjective, animal and action verb. i.e. “A slow, green turtle shuffled into our class mitten.”

I feel that even PK kiddos can come up with a descriptive word and action for their animal, and believe it’s not too early to have children practice writing a vivid and complete sentence, however, there’s also a simpler page, where they just name an animal and draw a picture.

I’ve tied the packet into Brett’s folktale,The Mitten, by including an alphabetical list of 39 of the action verbs in her story, along with a worksheet.

There’s also a verb-definition poster, plus 39 action verb cards, and 11 character cards, which you can use for several games and activities.      

I've also made a similar, classroom management packet that's a quick, interesting and fun way to build students' vocabularies, practice verbs, and reinforce synonyms, while improving dictionary & alphabetizing skills as well.

My students absolutely LOVE playing these games, and I’ve noticed nice improvement in their writing, as well as their verbal vocabulary.
 
The other portion of the packet, Ready! Set! Action! I use as a simple, yet highly effective classroom management tool, that reinforces verbs, while helping students “get the wiggles out” or transition to another activity.

Children enjoy the action of the activity, while you reinforce the grammar concept, at the same time easily & successfully managing classroom behavior.

The classroom management portion, includes several posters, student name cards, 45 action verb cards, plus a blank set to program with whatever.  

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, so there are two featured FREEBIES today because they both involve melted crayons.  

The first one is a melted crayon valentine. 

Completed projects are quite lovely and make a nice window display. 

The other one is using broken crayons to make an inexpensive, valentine gift for your students. 

Here's the link for the valentine crayons  FREEBIE.  

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by. 

Wishing you a warm and snuggly kind of day.

"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face." -Victor Hugo

1-2-3 Come Do Some More Mitten Activities With Me 

Brrrrrr! It continues to be mitten weather here in Michigan. A chilly 3 degrees this morning! So I'm certainly in the mood to blog about some super-fun mitten-themed activities.

First up is Mm is for Mitten.  My "Dollar Deal" Alphabet Wheels, are a quick, easy & fun way to practice letters, and build the vocabulary needed to give an example of a word, with that beginning sound.

They feature 6 nouns that begin with that letter, and come in black and white, for individual word work, as well as color, so that you can use them as an independent center activity.

I've also included a worksheet where students trace & write the words in alphabetical order. 

Next up are some Mitten Number Puzzles to go along with Jan Brett's story The Mitten.  It's one of my all-time favorite winter stories.

These 42, mitten-themed number puzzles, are a super-fun way for your kiddos to practice sequencing numbers from 1-10, counting backwards from 10 to 1, and skip counting by 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s.

Some of the puzzles are mitten shaped, others are rectangular (horizontal as well as vertical).  Many feature the characters from The Mitten story, so you can combine math and literacy!
 
Since Jan Brett’s story, The Mitten, is a Ukrainian folktale, I’ve also included a map of the Ukraine puzzle. Take a teachable moment to toss in a bit of geography, by having students find the country on a world map or globe.

There are colorful puzzles to be used in a center, as well as black & white puzzles, so that your students can make their own.

I did not number the character puzzles, so that students can number each strip according to your directions.
This way you can work on those toughie teen numbers, or counting beyond 100.

Children color the animal and word, cut their puzzle apart, then put it back together.
You can also make these into a mosaic picture as well, gluing the strips on construction paper, leaving a small gap in-between each piece. For an awesome, wintry bulletin board, scatter them on a  blue background, with a few paper snowflakes. 

Whenever I can, I like to incorporate math with literacy, to get more bang for my time.

The mitten-themed emergent reader, is a quick, easy and fun way to have students practice writing skills and end punctuation, along with a variety of math standards.

However, the packet is simple enough, that you can just do the craft portion with PK kiddos, or some of the other activities as a whole group.

I've also included a few worksheets that practice tally marks, addition, skip counting by 5s, subtraction and graphing, as well as data collection and analysis.

You can do them as an independent worksheet, or break students into small groups and have them figure out the answers together.

Another sweet mitten-shaped booklet is "Let's Count Snowflakes", which includes a 10-frame emergent reader featuring 30 Dolch sight words.

Students read the sentences, add end punctuation, trace & write the number and number word, circle it in the sequence, tally the amount, then show the set in the 10 frame. 

Run off the mitten pattern on a variety of colors of construction paper. Students cut & collate the pages of their worksheets, then staple them to the "cuff" of the mitten.

I’ve also included a set of pocket chart cards counting up to twenty, with 2 cover options to make a 1-10 or 1-20 “Itty Bitty” flip booklet as well.

For more fun, there are 3 pages of mini snowflake tiles to use as manipulatives to make groups with, as well as a set of lovely snowflake puzzle cards from zero to ten, plus a blank set to program with higher numbers.

Simply print, laminate and trim, to use as an independent math center, or for a variety of games including “Kaboom”.   That game, plus a 3-page tip list of what else you can do with the number cards, is also included in the packet.

Today's featured FREEBIE is a quick, easy and fun, Mitten-Snowman craftivity that reinforces letters, plus a bit of math. 

By the way, today is a great day to zip on over to TpT, as they are having a site-wide winter sale. (January 20th through January 21st.)

Everything's  20% off, with an additional 10% off with the coupon code: START16

Well that's it for now.  I hope you found something useful here and can make time to check out the TpT sale. Thanks for visiting.

Wishing you a warm and cozy, snuggly kind of day.

 "When there's snow on the ground, I like to pretend I'm walking on clouds." -Ikkaku

1-2-3 Come Do Some Mitten Activities With Me

We are smitten with The Mitten, by Jan Brett. It's a Ukrainian folktale, and one of my kiddos' favorite winter books, that's perfect for practicing sequencing and a variety of other standards.

With that in mind, I designed The Mitten Literacy Packet, with quick, easy and fun "print & go" activities, games, and even a mitten craft.

The packet includes:

* A world map worksheet, where children locate the Ukraine as well as their own country and color it.
* A label the cover worksheet, with completed sample.

* Characters, setting and events, pocket chart cards.
* Story elements, plus beginning-Middle-and End parts of the story, worksheets.

* Worksheets for sequencing the animals.
* Several writing prompt worksheets, for summarizing the story and explaining your favorite part.

* Who-What-Why-When-Where-How? worksheet.
* Several games, including a set of Memory Match cards that you can play 3 additional games with.

* 5 Venn diagram worksheets, which are a fun way to practice comparison & contrast.
* A graphing extension.

* 21, pocket chart, sentence cards, which help review the story, as well as practice capitalization and end punctuation.
* There's a matching set of mini cards, to use for several other activities.

* 9, "We read The Mitten today. Ask me to tell you the story." bookmarks.
* "Mm is for mitten and . . ." beginning letter sound worksheet.

* Rhyme time worksheet, with matching answer-key poster.
* "How Many Words Can You Make?" worksheet with an answer-key poster.

* Keepsake hand print mitten craft, plus . . .
* 3 mitten-themed graphic organizer worksheets.

Whew! That covers a nice variety of stuff doesn't it? 

Click on the link to zip on over to my TpT shop for The Mitten Literacy Packet. 

Today's FREEBIE is a snowman acrostic poem packet.

It's a quick, easy and fun way to incorporate the poetry genre into your studies. 

Besides the snowman arostic pictured, the packet also includes 5 other acrostic poem templates.

Completed projects make an adorable bulletin board too.

Well that's it for today.  Wishing everyone a wonder-filled wintry week.  Thanks for stopping by.  

"Poetry is when emotion has found its thought, and the thought has found words." - Robert Frost

1-2-3 Come Do Some Mitten Activities With Me

Do you read the Ukrainian folktale The Mitten, by Jan Brett? It’s one of my favorite winter stories and perfect for practicing the sequencing and retelling a story standards.

With that in mind, I designed some quick, easy and fun, mitten-themed activities.  First up is The Mitten story “slider” craftivity, that will help your students retell the story in the proper order.

Simply run the mitten and slider patterns off on white paper. Using construction paper or card stock adds to the sturdiness.

Children trim their mitten, then color, cut and glue their slider together. 
I pre-cut the mitten slits using an Exacto knife, so that children can easily insert their “storytelling strip”.

As they pull on the end of the “slider” the various pictures go through the mitten “window”, so that children can take turns retelling the story to a partner, then take their mitten home to share with their family, once again practicing the lesson.

I introduce the lesson by reading the story, then share my sample with the children.  We retell the tale together, using the picture prompts on the slider.

My students now know what’s expected of them, and are excited to transition to making a “mitten story slider” of their own. 

Another way students can retell the story, is with The Mitten Story Wheel.  It's a quick, easy & fun way to assess comprehension and practice sequencing as well.

There are full color patterns to use for centers, as well as a sample to share, plus a black and white pattern, so your students can make their own.

As a comprehension-assessment tool, and for more fine motor practice, another option is to have students cut up the picture sections, then glue them to the blank wheel in the appropriate order.

To practice ordinal numbers, have children write 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. on each piece.   I've also included "Sequence the Story” Puzzles.

Use the full-color versions for an independent center, and print the black and white pattern, so children can color, cut and arrange their own puzzle.

There's also a writing prompt worksheet, where students write what happened in the story. 

Since The Mitten story has eight animals climbing into a mitten, its a wonderful segue for practicing ordinal numbers too.  

The packet includes:
* An emergent reader booklet: Move Over Please, So I Won't Freeze, which reinforces a variety of Common Core Standards, along with ordinal numbers and verb practice.

* A mitten paper plate pocket "craftivity", which students make to keep all of their mitten-related work in.
* A set of ordinal number pocket chart cards

* A student-made, mitten matching game, where students match the animal character to the animal's name, or the ordinal number position it had in the story, or all three.
Children can do this independently, or pick a partner to play against.

* Ordinal number character assessment strip
* 2 graphing activities
* 2 writing prompts on one worksheet, which can be turned into a class-made book.

* Several mitten worksheets, including one that covers rhyming words, plus more verb-work. (Great for Daily 5 word work activities.) and . . .
* A certificate of praise bookmark that can be used to play another game. 

Finally, my kiddos absolutely LOVE making class books. They're a quick and easy way to practice a variety of standards.  Contributing a page for a class book, is super-fun for your kiddos, and will grab their attention from the get go.

Completed projects make a cute bulletin board display; afterwards, collate the pages and put the book in your classroom library. 

There are two writing prompts to make two books included in the packet.  Both are based on  The Mitten, by Jan Brett. 

In the first one, Our Mitten, the teacher loses a mitten. As children find it, they tuck something inside. 

Here, I wanted my kiddos to take size into consideration, and think of something that could realistically fit inside a mitten.

On their page, students state their name and tell what they put inside their teacher’s mitten and why, adding an illustration.

The Animals In Our Mitten, is the next book. The cover and pages, are in the shape of a large mitten.

Children fill in the blank with an adjective, animal and action verb. i.e. “A slow, green turtle shuffled into our class mitten.”

I feel that even PK kiddos can come up with a descriptive word and action for their animal, and believe it’s not too early to have children practice writing a vivid and complete sentence, however, I've also included a simpler page, where little ones simply name an animal and draw a picture.

I’ve further tied the packet into Brett’s folktale,The Mitten, by including an alphabetical list of 39 of the action verbs in her story, along with a worksheet.

There’s also a verb-definition poster, plus 39 action verb cards, and 11 character cards, which you can use for several games and activities. 

Today's featured FREEBIE is a shaving cream snowman. 

Equal parts of non-menthol shaving cream, mixed with Elmer's glue, dries all puffed up, creating amazing results!

It's our favorite winter craft.  Completed projects turn out absolutely fabulous! We get tons of compliments on our bulletin board too.

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.  I'm sure the holiday break went fast for you as well. 

Here's hoping some of these activities get you excited for back to school, celebrating a fresh start in the New Year. 

"Whatever you do, or dream that you can do--begin it. Boldness has genuis, and power and magic in it." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

1-2-3 Come Do A Mitten Craftivity With Me

This mitten-themed emergent reader, is a quick, easy and fun way to have students practice simple writing skills and end punctuation. 

Run off the mitten pattern on a variety of colors of construction paper. Students choose one, cut it out and color the snowflake. For that finishing touch, glue a school photo to the center of the snowflake.

Each child also needs a copy of the booklet pages. They are on one sheet for easy printing.  As a whole group, read the sentences aloud.  Pause, while students fill in the blanks, complete the writing prompt and add end punctuation.

I also wrote the color of my mittens, using a marker that color.  Have students write the number, as well as the number word in the blank, for how many pairs of mittens they own.

Children cut, collate and then staple their booklet to the cuff of their mitten, and write their name on the cover.

When everyone is done, have children share their mitten booklets.

I've included a graphing extension for colors of mittens, with a tally time worksheet.

Another graph shows whether they prefer gloves or mittens.

There are also a few mitten math extensions. Do the worksheets as a whole group, or break children up into small groups to figure them out.   

To help explain what you want students to do, the packet includes a completed sample that you can share with them, or, if you have the time, make a sample of your own.

Completed projects make an adorable winter bulletin board.  Scatter the mittens on a background of blue.  Use snowflake wrapping paper for extra pizzazz. 

For that finishing touch, edge with a border of paper snowflakes that your kiddos cut out. White doilies cut in half are also lovely. 

Click on the link to view/download the Emergent Reader Mitten craftivity.  That's it for today's newest FREEBIE. Thanks for visiting.

I spent an hour on Pinterest last night, so my brain is brimming with ideas, and my desk is cluttered with notes and sketches.

If you'd like to see the boards I take way too much time on, click the link to zip on over.  I have one specifically for mittens! Almost all of what I pin are educational FREEBIES, crafts, games and just plain fun timesavers.   I did lots of work, so you don't have to.

Playing on Pinterest gets me excited for all of the up-coming celebrations, and like everyone else, I have way more things to get done, than I do the time to make them all in.  Wishing you a productive and carefree day.

"If you don't like something, change it.  If you can't change it, change the way you think about it." - Mary Engelbreit   (Perhaps this is what my husband means when he tells me to embrace winter. Brrrrrr.)

1-2-3 Come Do A Little Magic With Me

I did a month-long mitten theme in January with my Y5's.  They enjoyed all sorts of mitten matching games and activities, so I wanted to feature a few popular FREEBIES today. 

If you teach the "magic e" spelling rule, I think you'll enjoy the Magic e Mitten packet.  It took lots of hours to complete, but I think it was time well spent.   Run the mitten patterns off on a variety of colors of construction paper. 

I wanted mine to have a red mitten with a green cuff + a green mitten with a red cuff, so I ran off two of each page (one on red and one on green). 

Laminate, trim and then cut the cuffs off so that you create puzzles for a Magic e Mitten Matching Game.

The 29-page packet includes a My Magic e Words (dictionary).  Students trace the word, add a magic e to the end (use a different color) and then write the new word that is made. 

Encourage students to look up words that they don't know and define them on their new-word definition page. 

There are also Mitten Math worksheets, where the word + an e ='s a new word, as well as an alphabetical list of 86 magic e words, + a pattern to make a magic e snowflake-mitten wand.

I added glitter to mine and glued it to a Popsicle stick.  Give students a word from the list, have them come up and write it on the board.

Everyone waves their magic e wand, and the child adds an e to the end, creating a new word "magically!"  Click on the link to view/download the Magic e Mitten packet.

Finally, help students practice their writing skills and organize their thoughts, by using a graphic organizer. 

Keeping with the theme of mittens, I designed several graphic organizers, which help students work on adjective as well as verb word work.

Students describe mittens on one worksheet, and tell what kinds of activities they do when they wear them, on the other worksheet. 

Afterwards, have children use the adjectives they thought of, to write several descriptive sentences about mittens. These are quick & easy activities for your Daily 5 time too. 

 I've included completed samples to help explain things.   Click on the link for the mitten-themed graphic organizers.

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for visiting.  Here in Michigan we got over a foot of snow dumped on us, and the windchill and drifting caused schools to close all over the area on Friday.  Wishing you safe and warm travels over the weekend.

"What a severe yet master artist old Winter is.... No longer the canvas and the pigments, but the marble and the chisel." -John Burroughs, "The Snow-Walkers," 1866 

1-2-3 Come Do Some More Mitten-Themed Activities With Me

Friday I featured activities to go with Jan Brett's story The Mitten.  (Scroll down for that article.) Today I want to highlight a few more popular mitten FREEBIES.  These all have to do with Common Core math standards.

If you're doing things with 10 frames, and want a winter theme, click on the link for the mitten 10 frames packet. (I use them for +1 more, addition, & subtraction.)

Are you working on skip counting with your students? Since mittens come in pairs, I thought it would be fun to do some activities to practice skip counting by 2's and use a mitten theme. 

Challenge your students to make up a list of other things that come in pairs. 

To assist with this, the packet includes a list of 38 items that are found in pairs, as well as some trace and write worksheets, What's Missing? worksheets, a bookmark and a certificate of praise.

Click on the link for the Skip Counting By Twos Mitten packet. 

Is telling time part of your math block?

The mitten-themed time card packet includes digital, as well as analog time to the hour and half hour.

Use them as flashcards, pocket chart cards or for a January bulletin board.  So that students can play Memory Match or "I Have; Who Has?" games, make a few extra sets.  You can also cut them up to make puzzles and play even more games (Like  Kaboom, which is included.)

If you're practicing place value with your students, then I think you'll enjoy this mitten place value craftivity. 

It's a "slider" and the packet includes one for each month, plus extras, which are great for assessing, and cover Common Core State Standards: 1.NBT.2a, 1.NBT.2b, 1.NBT.2c, 1.NBT.3, K.NBT.1

A number is given and students move their sliders up and down to make that number. For further reinforcement, have them jot the new number down.  With each number given, students tell how many 1s, 10s and 100s there are.

For more CCSS practice, have students compare 2 numbers as greater or less than. 

To include some addition and subtraction practice as well, ask children to make the number that is 10 more or 10 less, 

Finally, I made a mitten-themed number packet. 

As with the mitten time cards, print, laminate and trim these to use for flashcards, pocket chart cards or your winter word wall. 

Make a few extra sets, so students can play games like Memory Match or I Have; Who Has?  You can also cut them up to make puzzles and other games. 

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for visiting. Time to sort my piles of "idea paper-sketches" and little notes that I jot down for myself.  I need to clear up the clutter, so I can get down to the fun business of creating some more winter FREEBIES. 

I hope you can pop by tomorrow for the latest.  Wishing you a sparkling, stress-free day.

"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape — the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show." -Andrew Wyeth

1-2-3 Come Do Some Mitten Activities With Me

Do you read The Mitten by Jan Brett?  It's one of my favorite winter stories and perfect for all sorts of sequencing activities. 

With the aid of the materials provided for teachers on Jan's site, I designed 5 activity packets that cover all sorts of standards.  I hope you enjoy them.  They are today's featured FREEBIES and have been very popular downloads.

Help students retell the Ukrainian folktale, by making this cute mitten slider. This is a simple way to review sequencing too.  Graphics copyright janbrett.com

The Language Arts Mitten packet also provides sequencing practice. 

My kiddos loved making the mitten paper plate pocket to keep their things in.

This 24-page packet is chock full of activities that cover a variety of standards and includes:

• Move Over Please, So I Won't Freeze an emergent reader booklet, which reinforces lots of Common Core, especially ordinal numbers and verbs.
• A mitten paper plate pocket "craftivity" students make to keep all of their mitten-related work in.
• A set of ordinal number pocket cards
• A Mitten Matching card game, where students match the animal character to the animal's name, or the ordinal number position it had in the story, or all three: i.e. the word mole, picture of the mole, ordinal number card 1st-first
• Ordinal number character assessment strip with answer key.
• 2 graphing activities
• 2 mitten writing prompts
• Several mitten worksheets, including one that covers rhyming words + more verb-work. (Great for Daily 5 activities.) and ...
• A certificate of praise bookmark that can be used to play another game.

Another Mitten Literacy Packet, includes more ordinal number-sequencing practice that will help your kiddos retell the story, including a "beginning-middle-end" graphic organizer.

There's also a worksheet  where students label the parts of a book, plus pocket chart cards for character, setting and event.  I've also included 8 bookmarks to prompt retelling the story.

Another interesting way to review the story and practice end punctuation and capitalization at the same time, is with The Mitten Pocket Chart Punctuation packet.

You can do this as a whole group activity with laminated cards (give students a dry erase marker for them to make corrections) or give each child a card to fix, by rewriting it on a sheet of scratch paper, then sharing their corrections with the class. 

Finally, Venn diagrams are a quick, easy and fun way to introduce students to the concept of comparison-contrast writing. 

They're great practice if you've already done so, and especially perfect for visual learners.  

There are 3 in the Mitten Venn Diagram packet to choose from. 

Do one as a whole-group activity to explain things, (compare mittens and gloves) and then give students a choice of the other two. (Compare two characters in The Mitten, or compare the story The Mitten with Jan Brett's other story The Hat.)

To see a short (3 minute) YouTube video featuring Jan Brett click on the link.  Another fun video (11 minutes) features Jan showing children how to draw a hedgehog.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you found some extension activities to do with your mitten theme. As for me, it's time to help my grandson pick up Toys R Us that seems to have deposited itself all over my office.  Wishing you a day filled with contentment.

Cute quote: "If kisses were snowflakes, I'd send you a blizzard!" -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Do A Few More Mitten Activities With Me

I wanted to finish up our mitten theme with several more activities + a few requests.  Who knows what I'll design tomorrow; I hope you can pop by for the newest FREEBIES.

Kyesha, over in Michigan, asked if I could make some mitten-themed number cards like the gingerbread ones.  Happy to oblige, simply click on the link Mitten Number Packet to grab them.  

Just an FYI, if you've got a theme going and need a few more fill-in's, simply dash an e-mail off to me: diane@teachwithme.com  and I'll see what I can do.

You can use these as pocket cards, flashcards, for a bulletin board, or your winter word wall.  Students can also make their own Itty Bitty  booklet. 

Make extra sets, laminate and trim and use for Memory Match and "I Have; Who Has?" games.  Cut them up to make puzzles for centers, assessing, or more games.  Click on the link to view down load The Mitten Number Packet.

I also had a request from Dana, in Wisconsin, for some mitten time cards to match the other fall-themed ones.  Click on the link to view/download the Mitten Clock Cards.  They reinforce Common Core State Standard: 1.MD.3

There are cards for analog as well as digital time, a blank set you can use for assessing, and plain red or black and white mittens to program with whatever.  These are great for flashcards, puzzles and games too.

Since mittens come in pairs, I thought it would be fun to review things that come in pairs with your kiddo's. 

This leads to a really interesting discussion, because the word "pair" is used for a pair of pants or a pair of sunglasses, even though they are only one item. 

I enjoyed researching and making up a list of "single" item pairs, as well as a list of 38 things that come in pairs like mittens.  Challenge your students to make up their own lists. 

The packet includes a variety of skip counting by 2's worksheets, a bookmark + a certificate of praise.   Click on the link to view/download the Mitten Skp Counting Pair Packet.

Since the graphic organizer activities have been so popular, I decided to make 3 with a mitten-theme.  This is a great way to build vocabulary, as well as reinforce the use of adjectives. 

After students have completed their mitten graphic organizer(s), have them write several descriptive sentences incorporating words from their lists.  I included some samples for you to share with your students.  Click on the link to view/download the Mitten Graphic Organizers.

Finally, Kathy in chilly Colorado, asked for a set of mitten 10-frames.  Click on the link to view/download them.

She also wanted to know if I had any mitten number sliders.  I do.

This mitten "craftivity" is found in the Monthly Place Value Slider Packet.

That's it for today's FREEBIES.  Thanks for visiting. 

Feel free to PIN away.  To see the wonderful teaching materials I spend way too much time pinning, click on the heart button to the right of the blog. 

"Nothing burns like the cold.” -George R.R. Martin from A Game Of Thrones