"The Mitten" Story

      Acting out “The Mitten” storybook by Jan Brett was a fantastic activity with the children. I didn’t expect to get such great success with this activity and the children deemed it a huge hit!  It started out with a sleeping bag which  Cade and Alexandra quickly helped  pulling on either end working together to reveal the huge down sleeping bag.  I had all the children sit down next to me on the circle rug with instruction not to get into the sleeping bag until it was their turn.  They sat patiently awaiting their turn to dive onto the sleeping bag!  I began reading the old Ukrainian folktale and had everyones attention as this is one of our favorite books at our house.  The story begins with a boy who wanted snow white mittens so much his grandmother made them for him even though she thought the white mittens would get lost in the snow.  Of course as soon as the boy plays outside one of the mittens gets lost in the snow. A little mole decides to crawl in the mitten and make himself cozy.  Cade immediately wanted to be the mole and the first to dive onto the open sleeping bag. He snuggled on top of the sleeping bag hiding in and out of the cozy bag.  The story continues with a rabbit who hops in and wriggles next to the mole.  Alexandra piped in and wanted to be the next to join Cade and they both giggled and wriggled next to each other.  Along came Spencer “the hedgehog” who wiggled and giggled next to Cade and Alexandra.  Next came an “owl” Rylan who began “whoooing” and wrestling on top of the other animals.  Even Ben “the badger” made his space on the crowded sleeping bag.  Lyla the “sneaky fox” pushed her way onto the sleeping bag and found a safe spot to rest.  Then I “the big brown bear” attacked everyone on the sleeping bag hugging and wrestling them holding them close.  Along came a tiny mouse with I played out crawling on and around all the children which made them laugh.  The mouse perched his self on top of the the bear’s nose and I let out a HUGE sneeze!  All the animals go flying out of the mitten in the story and at our house children were dramatically flying off the sleeping bag onto the floor!  The story ends with the little boy finding his mitten and discovering that one of the mittens is now a lot bigger than it’s match!  After the story was over the children immediately asked to play the story over again.  We began again with everyone patiently on the rug and the story continued.  The children had me repeat and act out the story 5 times! After 30minutes each story  getting more elaborate and creative.  On the last story we had 2 rabbits as Cade wanted to switch his animal and join Alexandra as a hopping rabbit.  I was very proud of the children to be able to listen to the story, follow direction, and act it out together as a group.  The children learned about sequence and order as everyone played their part, and it was a really fun to elaborate on one of our favorite stories in the house.  It was a great opportunity to have Benjamin and Lyla join in as they tend to be a little shyer and slow to warm up and join group activities.  Overall the activity was a huge success and the sleeping bag has had many more adventures as I left it out for imaginary play.