The Mitten Book Companion January Preschool Kindergarten 1st 2nd Special Ed

About this resource

One theme, one week. Read the traditional folktale *The Mitten* (any version you have) every day

at circle time, and pull one simple activity after the read-aloud each day — sort, count, find

the letter, warm up safely after the snow, then build a craft. Every student page has one short

instruction with a picture, so a paraprofessional can run the room from it too.

This unit pairs with any version of the folktale *The Mitten*. Not affiliated with any particular

author, illustrator, or publisher; use your own copy. Nothing from any edition is reproduced or

imitated here — the animals and mitten are our own original art.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (57 pages)

• 1 Start Here week plan: what to do after the read-aloud each day, plus what else it practices
• 1 book-and-words page (naming the read-aloud only as the folktale *The Mitten*, any version), an

original circle-time chant ("Squeeze In Tight," written for this unit — no story text is

reprinted), and the 9 circle-time vocabulary words

• 9 smartboard slides for whole-group circle time on a projector or interactive board: name the

pictures, sort, count (3 slides), the letter hunt, the life skill in order, and the core word

• 9 circle-time vocabulary cards to cut out and use at the carpet (gloves, rabbit, hedgehog, owl,

badger, fox, bear, mouse, snow)

• Day 1, Sort (animal or not?), at 3 levels: Level 1 errorless matching, Level 2 the standard

two-group sort, Level 3 a third group added (animal, winter thing, or toy) — 10 cut-and-glue

pieces on every level

• Day 2, Count and glue the number, at 3 levels: Levels 1 and 2 count 1–5 (5 rows, a 5-piece

numeral strip to cut and glue); Level 3 counts 6–10 and writes the number, no cutting

• Day 3, Letter M, at 3 levels: Level 1 glues 5 matching M's, Level 2 finds M among 10 look-alike

letters, Level 3 says 10 pictures aloud and glues the 5 that start with the /m/ sound

• Writing, at 3 levels: Level 1 traces the big letters, Level 2 traces letters and the word,

Level 3 writes the letters and the word independently on primary lines

• Day 4, a life-skill sequencing page: 5 picture pieces (4 real steps to warm up safely after

playing in the snow, first/next/then/last, plus 1 that does not belong)

• Day 5, a book craft (2 pages): a big knitted mitten to color (thumb, ribbed cuff, knit rows) and

six woodland animals to tuck in — rabbit, hedgehog, owl, fox, bear and mouse — 7 pieces in all,

each in its own straight-cut cell, plus a snowy forest scene to glue the finished mitten onto, with

a small color picture of the finished craft so children see the goal. All our own line art

• 2 fine motor pages: a tracing-paths page (4 dashed paths from the mouse to the bear: straight,

wave, zigzag, loops) and a cutting-practice page (4 strips, easiest first)

• 4 core-word pages for the word of the week, "hot": a big word card for the talker or core

board, a 12-word find-and-circle grid (6 of the 12 are the target word), a mitten to color, and

10 animals that squeeze in to get warm to cut and glue onto it

• 1 "Who Did What This Week" data page (one row per student, a prompt-level code for each day —

handy for IEP notes and progress reports)

• 1 family letter to send home on Day 1
• 1 credits page (art and font licenses)
• 19 ink-saver twin pages (outline art for a photocopier) covering the sort, count, letter,

writing, fine motor and core-word pages, so those color pages are optional, not required (the

craft and pure-coloring pages are color-only by design)

Three Levels On Every Academic Task

Sort, count, letters and writing each come in three levels, marked with a small shape instead of

a number so children don't compare theirs to a neighbor's: a circle for starting (errorless

matching), a square for building (the standard task), a triangle for ready for more (a real step

up — a third sort group, 6–10 counting with writing, or beginning sounds).

Cutting Built For Small Hands

Every cutting page carries 5 or more pieces, lined up edge to edge so each cut is one straight

line. Pre-cut them yourself for students who are not cutting independently yet.

Color Or Ink-Saver

Print the color pages, or use the ink-saver twins at the back on a photocopier — most

picture-based student pages have both (the craft and pure-coloring pages are color-only by design).

Who This Is For

Any teacher starting a self-contained preschool or early childhood special education classroom

who wants a whole week of circle time, ready to pull and go: one theme, a different simple

activity every day.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A print-and-go weekly theme unit built around a woodland-animals-and-a-lost-mitten theme. It is

not a claim about any student's age, diagnosis, or rate of progress, and it does not reproduce or

imitate any book, illustrator's art style, its text, or its artwork — only our own generic

animal and mitten drawings.