Our current discovery unit is on mittens. We recently read "The Mitten Tree", by Candice Christiansen. Before reading the story I told 6-B that there was a mystery in the book! Someone was placing mittens on the spruce tree for the children but they did not know who? Above you can see our pre-reading predictions about who may have been leaving the mystery mittens?
Then we read the book and realized that the story is about kindness and generosity. An elderly woman, Sarah, watches children as they play and wait for their school bus to arrive. Sarah notices that one small boy is not playing with the cold snow because he did not have any mittens. She kindly knits a pair for him, and anonymously places them on the blue spruce tree next to the bus stop. Soon this becomes a game and the children eagerly check the mysterious mitten tree each morning to see if there are any new pairs of mittens?
After we discussed mittens in general 6-B took their very own mittens (brought in from home) and did a copy cat drawing to add to our class mitten tree.
As an extension to the lesson 6-B gathered on the rug and received one mitten each. We faced away from one another and closed our eyes as each friend took a turn to describe how the mitten felt (eyes closed) and looked (eyes open). A great experience for visual, auditory, and kinesthetic/tactile learning styles. As we listened to the descriptions, the person who owned that mitten had to raise their hand the moment they knew that it was theirs. We each did a wonderful job, and properly identified our own mittens brought in from home!
Our next lesson will be to complete a portfolio page where we choose two describing words about or mittens. We want to share how they feel and look. Below are a few words we have started to brainstorm.
Of course we didn't forget to have some good old fashion fun while wearing our mittens indoors- so silly!
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