The Mitten

1. Narrative Skills

• You can help your child with narrative skills by asking them to recount the story. Say, “When Nicki dropped his white glove in the snow what woodland animals found it and crawled inside (mole, rabbit, hedgehog, owl, badger, fox, and bear)? Then ask, “Was the mole larger or smaller than the bear?” You can continue to talk about the different sizes of all the animals and also ask, “What happen to the mitten once all the animals crawled in?”

2. Print Awareness

• Cut out two white mittens from construction paper; on one mitten write the word “mitten” and on the other mitten write both upper and lower case letter “m/M”. Place it on the refrigerator or wall. Show your child the mittens and say the word “mitten” as you point to the lettering. Emphasize the “m/M” sound. Take your child to the pantry and see if you can find a label with either the upper or lower case “m” on it.

3. Letter Knowledge

• Play the “I Spy Letter Game”. All you need is a magazine and highlighter pen. Sit down with your child and say, “We are going to play the I Spy Game." Show your child the letters “m/M” that you had previous written on a mitten; then say, “Let’s find the letters “m/M” on the magazine pages. Once she/he has found the letter(s) have them highlight it with a highlighter pen.

4. Vocabulary

• Ask your child, “How do you think Nicki’s grandmother (Baba) felt when she looked out the window and saw that Nicki was safe and had his new mittens?” Then say, “How did his grandmother (Baba) feel when she saw that one of the snow white mittens had been really stretch and was much larger than the other white mitten?”

5. Print Motivation

• Make book-sharing time a special time for closeness between you and your child. Hold your child on your lap while they watch the video.

6. Phonological Awareness

• Teach them the following rhyming words: “mitten, kitten, written and fox”; “snow, slow and toe”; “white, bright, night and stairs”; “bear, chair, and sound.(As always, I have included some words that don’t rhyme so they will begin listening very carefully to the sounds of each word.)