Lesson Template
Title and Author:
The Mitten
Jan Brett
Grade: Preschool
Reading Level: 3:2
Lexile Level: 800 L
DRA: 24
Key Understanding: Nicki wanted his grandmother Baba to knit him a new pair of snow white mittens. Baba, his
grandmother did not think it was a good idea however, she knitted him a new pair of mittens. Sadly, Nicki loses one in the
snow. Losing his mitten is a big problem. This is demonstrated through character dialogue and actions.
Suggested number of days: 5
Rhode Island Early Learning Standards:
Language Development: Component 1: Receptive Language
Learning Goal 1.a: Young children attend to, understand, and respond to increasingly complex language.
Language Development: Component 2: Expressive Language
Learning Goal 2.a: Young children use increasingly complex vocabulary, grammar, and syntax to express thoughts and
needs.
Literacy: Component 4: Comprehension and Interest
Learning Goal 4: a: Children show interest and an understanding of a variety of literacy experiences.
Cognitive Development: Memory and Working Memory
Learning Goal 2.a: Children hold information in their minds and manipulate it to perform tasks.
IEP Goals lesson addresses:
Speech/Language: In 5 instructional weeks, Julian will answer 5/10 question words (interrogatives) who, what, where,
when, why, and how accurately. In 5 instructional weeks, Julian will retell a familiar story in the proper sequence,
including such details as characters, phrases, and events with visual prompts 5 times during a 20-minute time period.
Reading: Common Core: Foundational Skills) Student will demonstrate the understanding of spoken words, syllables,
and sounds.
Reading: Common Core: (Key ideas and details) Student will actively engage in group reading activities with purpose
and understanding.
Writing: Common Core: (Conventions of writing) Student will use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to
compose and narrate writing pieces in which they tell or name what the writing is about.
Materials:
The Mitten book by Jan Brett
Adapted and modified text: The Mitten
Before Reading
Cultural Supports, Building Background:
Winter season (snow, cold, freezing, temperature).
Understand the need for winter clothes.
Learn about where animals go in the winter? (hibernate)
Learn about the characteristic of the animals in the story.
Family members.
How clothes are made. (Knitting, sewing, weaving, etc.)
Learn about habitats (forest, mountains).
Learn about the country and culture of Ukraine.
Compare different book genres (folklore, fiction, nonfiction, fairytale)
Connecting Activity: (Questions, Conversation about topic):
We have previously discussed winter weather and the need for winter clothing. We have discussed how clothing is made
while studying our Clothing Unit. Students have studied about the various woodland animals in nature that burrow and
hibernate. We have discussed families and different members of families in which a person may live with.
Genre Set-Up, Bridging Conversation, Think-Aloud, Setting Purpose
(What strategy are you highlighting in your lesson)
Before reading the story, The teacher will introduce the characters and the problem of the story. The teacher will start by
saying; “The Mitten” is a story about Nicki, a boy who wants a pair of snow-white mittens. Baba, his grandmother, knits
him a pair of mittens but she tells him not to lose them. When Nick goes in the snow to play, he loses one of his mittens.
Let’s find out what happens to the mitten.
Vocabulary (Tier II)
Word
Contextualize Word
In the story…..
“A mole tired from
tunneling along,
discovered the mitten
and burrowed inside.”
“A great bear
lumbered by.”
Definition
( kid friendly)
To hide inside.
Example beyond story
To move slowly.
The turtle lumbered into
the water.
jostled
“The mole and the
rabbit were bumped
and jostled.”
Being pushed.
You get jostled when you
are waiting in line.
tunneling
“A mole, tired from
tunneling along,
discovered the
mitten.”
“Just the sight of the
cozy mitten made him
drowsy.”
To make a hole or
tunnel in the ground by
digging
The squirrel tunneled a
hole to hide the acorn.
Sleepy, tired
I am drowsy during nap
time.
burrowed
lumbered
drowsy
The rabbit burrowed into
the garden.
Bridge to story
Picture
The mole coming
out of his hole and
climbing into the
mitten.
The bear is
walking over to
the mitten to look
inside the mitten.
When hedgehog is
crawling into the
mitten, the rabbit
and the mole are
being pushed
around inside the
mitten.
The picture of the
mole coming out
of his hole in the
snow.
When fox poked
his muzzle in the
mitten.
Comprehension Strategy
Before Reading
Make a connection
Self Monitor
Identify Important Information
Comprehension Strategy
Prediction/ Questioning
Visualize
Prior Knowledge
Make inferences
Prior Knowledge
Visualize
Prediction
Questioning
Synthesis
Language ( What you say to support, teach the comprehension strategy)
1. The teacher will have my students look at the front cover of the story.
 The teacher will ask “Tell me what you see.”
 “Why do you think it is called The Mitten?”
 “What do you think the story is about?”
 “What kind of animals do you see?”
 “Where do you think the story takes place?”
 “Does the story take place in the summer or winter?”
2. After reviewing the cover, the teacher will introduce the text and explain to the
students, “Today we are going to read you a book called The Mitten. It is about a
boy named Nicki who wants his grandmother, Baba to knit him a pair of
mittens. She doesn’t want to because she is afraid he will lose them in the snow.
Nicki promises his grandmother that he will not lose his new mittens. However,
as soon as he goes out to play, one of his mittens gets lost, and an adventure
begins. Let’s find out what happens to Nicki’s mittens.”
3. The teacher will then read aloud the entire story, The Mitten.
4. During the reading, the teacher will explicitly teach the vocabulary words;
burrowed, grumbled, drowsy, jostled, lumbered, and tunneling.
5. The teacher will review the Tier I words while reading. These words were
taught during our tree and clothing studies.
During Reading
Make a connection
Self Monitor
Identify Important Information
Post
It #
pg. 2
pg. 3
pg.3
pg.6
pg.7
pg. 7
pg.9
pg.11
pg.12
pg.13
Make inferences
Prior Knowledge
Visualize
Prediction
Questioning
Synthesis
Comprehension or
Language you will use to teach, focus or probe for understanding
Vocabulary
Identify Important Information After reading the first page, the teacher will ask the students, “What is the boy’s
name in the story? What did Nicki want from his grandmother?
Visualize / Make a connection The teacher will have the students focus on the picture of Baba, Nicki’s
grandmother “knitting” his “mittens” with knitting needles. Baba is making
Nicki’s mittens from yarn or thread by using long needles. The class will also talk
about the clothing Nicki is wearing. The class will compare the clothing we may
wear outside during the winter time.
Questioning
What does Baba tell Nicki about his white mittens? “Baba doesn’t think snowwhite mittens are a good idea. Why do you think it’s not a good idea to knit snowwhite mittens?
Identify Important Information What happens when Nicki goes out to play in the snow? “Do you think he knows
his mitten is gone?
Prediction
The mole was tired from tunneling along in the snow. What do you think
tunneling means?
Questioning
What does the mole do with the mitten when he finds it? Mole burrowed inside
the mitten?
Questioning / Prior Knowledge Why did the mole let the snowshoe rabbit in the mitten? How many animals are
in the mitten now? Can we name them?
Prior Knowledge
What happened to mole and rabbit when hedgehog moved into the mitten? The
mole and rabbit was bumped and jostled.
Analysis
What is happening to the mitten when all the animals are pushing their way in?
Do you think more animals can fit inside the mitten?
Questioning/ Visual
Why did the mole, the rabbit, and the hedgehog grumbled when they saw owl?
We will act out grumbling.
pg.13
pg.14
pg.18
pg.18
pg.19
pg.20
pg.21
pg,21
pg.21
pg.22
pg.22
pg.24
pg.27
pg.27
pg.29
pg.29
pg.29
Questioning
Questioning
Why did the animals let owl in?
Why did the mole, the rabbit, the hedgehog and the owl let the badger in the
mitten?
Questioning / Make a
Why is the fox tired and drowsy? What made him drowsy? (the sight of the cozy
connection
and warm mitten) What makes you drowsy?
Questioning
Why did the animals let the fox climb into the mitten?
Identify Important Information What animal came next? (bear) How did the bear walk? Let’s read the first line
Visual
again and look at the bear. “A bear lumbered by.” The bear walked slowly to the
mitten. Let’s pretend that we are bears and we are going to walk slowly.
Make Inferences
What is happening to the mitten? (stretching, bulging)
Synthesis
Why do you think the animals made room for each other inside the mitten? What
would you have done if you were one of the animals? Have you ever made room
for a friend during group time?
Make Inferences
What happens when the mouse tries to fit inside the mitten with all the other
animals?
Identify Important Information What did the bear do when the mouse tickled the bear’s nose?
Identify Important Information What happened to make all the animals pop out of the mitten?
Prediction
Where do you think animals will go now to stay warm?
Questioning
Where did Nicki find his missing mitten?
Questioning
What happened to Nicki’s white mitten?
Make a connection
How did Nicki’s mitten stretch and get bigger?
Prediction
What do you think Nicki will tell his grandmother what happened to his mitten?
Synthesis
What might have happened if Nicki had not been able to find his lost mitten?
Questioning
What does Baba do when Nicki gets home?
After Reading
Comprehension Questions
Bloom Taxonomy
Question Type
Knowledge
Comprehension
Question: Have a mix of questions
Where can the animals go to stay warm now?
Where would you go or what would you do to get warm if you were out in the cold?
Where else could the animals have gone to get warm?
Why do you think all those animals crawled into Nicki’s white mitten?
Application
Nicki seems to enjoy playing outside, but later in the story, he looks surprised and worried. What
do you think he noticed? How do you think he feels?
Analysis
At the end, Nicki’s grandmother Baba was looking at one small mitten and one enormous mitten.
She must be wondering how that mitten got so big. How did one mitten get bigger?
Synthesis
Nicki really wanted a pair of snow-white mittens at the beginning of the story. Do you think he
will ask his grandmother for the same color of mittens next time?
How does the mitten look different at the end of the story?
Do you think Baba should have made white mittens for Nikki?
Evaluation
Culminating Writing Task
Teacher directions and activities to prepare students for writing.
Students are asked to think of something that could fit into a mitten. They are asked to illustrate their ideas and then write
the word.
Prompt: The mitten is so big a ____________ could fit in it.
A _________ crawled into the mitten because _____________________________________.
Differentiation Options (modify by content, process, and/or final product)
English Language
Learners (ELL)
Model and focus on specific language and content in the story.
Focus on who is inside the mitten. Identify the animals in the story.
Notice details in the illustrations for example, Nicki and Baba’s clothing, the thatched roof,
knitting wheel, etc.
Explain words, topics, or concepts that ELL’s may not be familiar with.
Build background knowledge by using pictures, real objects, maps, and personal experiences. The
teacher will provide pictures of winter clothing, family members (grandmother), woodland
animals, winter related words (snow, cold, etc.) and colors in the student’s home language.
Introduce the students to the animal names in the story using stuff animals and pictures.
Talk about clothes to wear outside in different seasons, and seasonal outdoor activities related to
The Mitten. What clothes do you wear in the winter? Compare the student’s clothes to Nicki’s.
Use multicultural dolls and or pictures in the classroom to demonstrate family relationships while
learning the names of different family members (mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, and
grandfather).
Describe and demonstrate knitting and sewing with pictures and knitting needles.
Provide a map of Ukraine and the student’s home country.
Provide hands-on experiences to act out vocabulary words, main events, and characters.
Use picture cards and prompts to retell the story and put the story events in sequence.
Modify and simplify comprehension questions. For example, “What color is Nicki’s mitten?
Provide a red mitten and a white mitten. Have the student verbalize or gesture (point) to the
answer.
Language learner
disabilities
Modify a text by enlarging the print.
Provide visual props while reading the story. Act out the animal characters and the word
meaning of the vocabulary words.
Modify and simplify the questions to enable the students to recall the parts of the story.
The teacher will ask questions requiring short and concise answers. For example;
What is the boy’s name?
What color is the mitten?
Name three animals that went into the mitten.
Why did the animals go into the mitten?
Why was Nicki’s mitten so big at the end of the story?
Provide sentence strips and pictures to retell the story.
Provide story boards.
Any visuals or other supporting documents that you feel support this lesson.
Modified and adapted book; The Mitten
Woodland Animal Character masks by Jan Brett (retell)
Enormous sewn snow white mitten (re-tell prop)
Extension Literacy Activities:
Read another version of The Mitten by Jim Aylesworth.
Compare the animals, how the mittens looks different, in which way the mitten was lost in the story, in which way the
Animals got out of the mitten, and how the mitten looked at the end of the story by using a Venn diagram.
Home School Connection
1. Send home a retelling activity to reinforce literacy skills at home.
The teacher will send home a modified text and visuals in order to retell the story.
The teacher will translate written communications that are sent home explaining the activity.
The teacher will attach a note to the materials stating “Please read with me” in their home language.
2. The teacher will send home a list of Tier II vocabulary words that we will be learning.
I will attach a letter to the vocabulary words in the student’s home language explaining the content and book we will be
reading. I will also send home a vocabulary word activity that the families can complete together. For example, the families can
play a matching game with their word meaning. This will enable the families to communicate what the child is learning at
school.
Resources
www.janbrett.com/animal masks
www.janbrett.com/activities