Fun ways to explore and learn with mittens in your preschool classroom!
I am in the middle of preparing lesson plans for our winter session at school and one thing that I would love to include is an entire unit on nothing but mittens. I am not the only one who enjoys mittens. The mitten matching photo below was from a teacher on my Teach Preschool Facebook page. She took the time to create her own mitten matching game after reading this cute little mitten matching idea by Not Just Cute!
The Planning Process
Part of the reason I started looking at blogs in the first place was to drum up new and fresh ideas for writing lesson plans. In preparing lesson plans, I spend a lot of time searching out ideas and then figuring out how I can use them or plug them into my overall planning. Once I have some ideas in mind, I open up my handy dandy lesson plan overview template that looks something like the one below and start filling in the blanks…
After I fill in my Overview Sheet/Weekly Calendar – then I start putting down the details for how to implement each item listed on this sheet. The template above is just an overview of what I hope to do each day with the kids. I will go into more detail in what we refer to as the “guts” of the lesson plans later on in my planning.
Mitten Inspiration
I thought I would share with you some of the mitten ideas I have found so if you are considering a Mitten Unit, you can use some of these great ideas too.
Literacy
“The Mitten” by Jan Brett is a terrific book that I could write down for circle time!
“The Mystery of the Missing Red Mitten” is one of my favorite books so I will add it under a day for my circle time too!
“The Mitten” is also an old favorite of mine so I will add it under circle time too!
And I will want to add “The Three Little Kittens” to my circle time list too!
Art
Designing Mittens is a cute idea for creative art so I might plug it in under creative art.
A Little bit of Low-Mess Mitten Painting might be fun so I just might include it under creative art too.
And how about some Marvelous Messy Mitten fun too!
Fine Motor
Working on cutting skills would also be a good addition to my creative art time.
I just have to include some Mitten Clipping for fine motor skills and matching in Math.
Math
Matching Mittens would be a fun idea to include under Math.
Mitten Graphing and Counting might also be a fun idea to add under Math.
A little Mitten Symmetry might also be a good prospect for Math.
And sometimes I add make a little activity on my computer, too!
I do have ideas of my own to include or ideas that I have used in the past to draw inspiration from! But scanning the internet brings me some fresh ideas so I don’t get stuck in a rut.
Science/Sensory
For science, we can put a little ice in the sensory table and try picking up the ice with our mittens on and off.
Gross Motor
For large motor, we can play “Drop the Mitten” which is actually “Drop the Hankie”.
Music/Movement
For music – well there are plenty of mitten or winter songs out there to include in my lesson plans.
Other Ideas
And sometimes I add make a drawing activity or puzzle activity on my computer to go along with my units too! We can marble paint some mittens, make mitten patterns, compare mittens to gloves, and the list goes on!
Next week, some of these mitten activities may be included in our lesson plans – I will be sure to take a few photos of the children in action as they do! But for today, I thought I would just share with you what I am currently working on from home. Â If you have another mitten activity to share – I would love for you to leave a comment below with a link to your idea!