Mitten Mania: Thematic Common Core Curriculum

All children love the traditional tale, "The Mitten!" Expand on great literature, reach across the curriculum, and strategically teach to the common core standards as you enjoy bringing Mitten Mania into your classroom.

Table of Contents:

Shared Reading Activities

The Mitten: Retell a Story
Mitten Poetry Activity: Group Reading Activity

Scripted Literacy Activities:

Little Lost Mittens: Reviewing Early Phonics and Phonological Skills.
Shake and Fill Mittens: Reading and Writing CVC Words
Warm Mittens: Naming Sounds or Reading Nonsense Words
The Kittens’ Mittens: Naming Alphabet Sounds

Independent Literacy Activities:

Makin’ Mittens: Reading Sight Words
The Lost Mitten: Producing Rhymes
Mitten Colors: Reading Color Words

Math Activities:

Mitten Spots: Naming Numbers Fluently
The Mitten Shop: Counting by Tens
Mitten Bingo: Identifying Numbers 11-30
Mitten Problems: Decomposing Numbers

Independent Math Activities:

Mitten Sort: Sorting Mittens by Shape
Mitten Pairs: Understand Number, Quantity Relationships
Mitten Numbers: Writing Numbers from 0-20.
Dice Mitten Throw: Adding Dice

Writing Prompts/Word Wall

My Mittens 
Who Will Crawl Into My Mitten?
Mitten Word Wall

Class Book

Millions of Mittens 
Guided Reading Books
The Mitten: Level A
The Mitten Level C

Art Projects

Mitten Art
Mitten Wreath
The Mitten Retelling Puppets

Songs

Oh Where, Oh Where
Fuzzy Mittens
The Mitten

Christmas Around the World

We are having a great trip around the world!
Please check out our Christmas Around the World Unit.

We made this by fingerpainting butcher paper with different shades of blue, and making it into a large circle. We added green, fingerpaint Continents and of course we didn't want to forget the South and especially the North poles!

Tragedy in Connecticut

And suddenly all other problems are small. 

The greatest blessings to those who morn 
and love to those we teach.

Christmas & Winter Themes in Kindergarten

Look no further for some great Christmas and Winter Thematic units. All of these units are cross-curricular and strategically linked to the common core standards. Here as some of our store offerings.

Also check out our companion sight word readers with some Christmas or Winter flair.

And Also, enjoy a couple Winter, Christmas Themed freebies!

Also remember to become a follower at one your favorite online teacher store so you will be notified when our new christmas freebie will be posted next week!

Cyber Monday & Bonus Tuesday Sale

Christmas Around The World: Common Core Thematic Essentials

Check out our new 258 page strategically linked thematic unit Christmas Around the World is stuffed with learning! 

20 countries of study are included and may easily be used in a mix and match fashion, or you may choose to visit all 20 countries for a comprehensive world-wide tour.

 A Scrapbook/Passport Book is included for each student to make to keep as a world traveler memento. The unit culminates with a tribute to “Peace on Earth” and will leave each child with a feeling of love for their fellowmen. Do not miss out on this great unit!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Scripted Literacy Activities

Australia: Surfing Santa: Segmenting Words

USA: Decorate Away: Blending Phonemes

Russia: Land of the Sweets: Comprehension 

Bahamas: Junkanoo: Using Common Nouns in Complete Sentences

France: Le Reveillon: Rhyming

Greece: St. Nicholas’ Boats: Naming Sounds

Israel: The Star of Bethlehem: Naming Letters (or Reading Words)

Italy: Befana’s Toys: Changing Initial Sounds to Make New Words

Mexico: Poinsettia Race: Naming Letters Quickly

Independent Literacy Activities

China: Christmas Lanterns: Writing Alphabet Letters 

Scripted Math Activities:

German Advent Calendar: Solving Problems Using Mental Math Strategies.

India: Diwali Day: Identifying and Comparing Numbers

Sweden: St. Lucia Day Deliveries: Composing Teen Numbers.

Denmark: Nisse The Elf: Subtraction

Peru: Fiesta de Navidad: Classifying and Sorting Objects

Africa: Candle, Candle: Decomposing Numbers

Canada: Tree Delivery: Making Combinations for 10

Scotland: The Mischievous Elves: Identifying Numbers

Independent Math Activities

Spain: Spanish Shoes: Writing Numbers

England: Stocking Stuffing: Counting Objects For a Given Number

Songs/Fingerplays

Germany: O Tannenbaum

India: Little Clay Lamp

Australia: Six White Boomers

Sweden: Lucia Day

USA: Ring Your Bells

Denmark: Ten Little Gnomes

Spain: Navidad

Peru: Fiestas de Navidad

ALL: Let There Be Peace on Earth

Art Projects

Germany: Star Christmas Countdown

India: Clay Lamp

Sweden: Star Hats, St. Lucia Wreaths

USA: A Gift for Mom & Dad

Russia: Nesting Dolls/Nutcracker

Bahamas: Starfish Santa

Denmark: Danish Christmas Heart

Spain: Balthazar & the Wise Men

Africa: Candle Art

Canada: Strip Christmas Tree

China: Mini-Christmas Lanterns

England: Christmas Cards

France: Christmas Santons 

Greece: Christmas Fishing Boat

Israel: My Star

Italy: My Ceppo

Mexico: Poinsettia Construct

Scotland: Shape Elf

Guided Books

Around the World: Sight Word Reader

Christmas Around the World: Class Made Book

Around the World Scrapbook: Passport Scrapbook Pages, Cover, Final Pages, and Around the World Friend Art

Kitchen

Australia: Pavlova

Peru: Panettone

Writing

Country Scrapbook Pages: All Countries

Country Word Walls: All Countries

Unit Word Wall

Writing Prompt: My Favorite Country

Writing Prompt: My Christmas Tradition

Thanksgiving

Today we did one of my favorite activities from our Thanksgiving Unit, the Tangram Indian.

Also take a peek at a few other Thanksgiving Activities.

Benefits of Mother Goose Rhymes

"Experts in literacy and child development have discovered that if children know eight nursery rhymes by heart by the time they're four years old, they're usually among the best readers by the time they're eight." -Fox, M. (2001). Reading Magic. San Diego, CA: Harcourt.
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I love to use Nursery Rhymes and Traditional songs as a staple in my Kindergarten curriculum. One program I love to use is Singlish! I found this great resource many years ago at a conference in Texas. I can't say enough to advertise their products. I have found that it truly builds oral language development.
Also, you might want to check out our Nursery Rhymes Thematic Unit. I love using this unit in my kindergarten classroom. My students have always enjoyed acting out the rhymes in our annual performances. This year my class performed a Spring program, "An Adventure in Nursery Rhyme Land." Kids do love these rhymes all year long!
My grandchildren (ages 2-6) love to play the games and activities in this thematic packet, kids of all ages love Mother Goose. It is a great tool to use at home as well as school.

You might also want to head over to Fairy Dust Teaching. She is always full of great ideas when it comes to the arts and traditional tales. She has some great ideas posted 

A Halloween Shared Reading Lesson

My Ghost
by Lyndsey Jarman

I needed a costume
on Halloween night.
A scary, new costume
that would be a fright.
I found an old tablecloth
all clean and white.
I cut out two eyes,
big, round, and just right!
I put my sheet on
I knew just what to do.
I found all my friends and shouted out
BOO!

Critical Reading Lesson

Read through the poem once for enjoyment and then tell the children Today we are going to practice doing something that good readers can do. It is called visualizing. Visualizing means creating a picture of what is being read inside of your head. It is like turning on a TV inside of your brain that creates pictures of what your are reading.

We are going to read this poem again. The child in the poem is making a costume for Halloween. I want all of you to close your eyes this time as I read the story and turn on your brain TVs. As I read to you what the child is doing, I want you to imagine a picture of it in your brain. At the end of the poem, I want you to imagine what the child looks like in the costume he or she made.

Read the poem to the students once more. After reading, think aloud about some of the elements of the poem. This time while I was reading the poem I noticed some of the details about what the child was doing. I noticed that he or she started with a sheet out of which he or she cut two big eyes. I wonder what a sheet with two eyes cut out would look like? I wonder what the child in the story is going to be? I also am paying close attention to the fact that the child said, “boo” after he or she put the costume on. I think that is a big clue. Who made a picture in their mind of what this child looks like all dressed up for Halloween?

Ask a few children to draw a picture of the child in costume. Encourage the children to do their best, but emphasize that individual differences are great because everyone makes different pictures when they visualize. Do not draw a picture yourself because children may consider this the correct answer and attempt to copy it.

Now give each child a white piece of construction paper, art materials, and a kleenex. Instruct them to make a picture of a child on their paper. Next, using scissors, have the children cut kleenex to show how the child cut out the sheet, glue it on top of their drawing, and then write “boo” on the paper.