The mouse causes the bear to sneeze the mitten and all its occupants go flying. A mole is the first animal to discover the mitten, and he crawls inside, followed by a snowshoe rabbit, a hedgehog, an owl, a badger, a fox, a bear, and finally a mouse. Remind the students that the animals have to be put into the mitten in order, or they won’t be able to go in at all. Provide enough time for the students to put the animals inside the mittens, in order.Ĭlick the following link for an interactive activity. After the mittens are dry you may want to trim the excess construction paper from the mittens. Emphasize not putting glue on the bottom edge of the mitten–so that the animals can fit inside it. Provide each child with a half sheet of construction paper. Copy enough worksheets for each child to have one. Introduction Introduce the story to the students. This story demonstrates scarcity of space and what happens when this occurs. While he is outside he loses one and some animals, one by one, find it and move in because it looks warm. Use this mitten worksheet to help the students recall the order in which the animals entered the mitten. This is a folktale retold by Jan Brett about a little boy whose grandmother knits him a pair of snow white mittens. Which animals might have actually fit? Why those animals? Why not the others? Was it the largest or the smallest animal that finally burst the mitten? Why was it the smallest? As you discuss these questions, help the students to see how the story illustrates the concept of scarcity of space. Remind the students that all of the animals wanted to live in the mitten, but it was made to fit a small boy’s hand it was not large enough for eight animals to live in. Explain that when there isn’t enough of what is wanted, that is called scarcity. Next ask what happens when several people want to live in a place where there isn’t enough space for all of them. Then ask why we like to have a nice warm place to live, too. Individuals then can check their lists against the class list.)īegin a discussion by asking the students why the animals all wanted to get into the mitten. (A possible option for older students: have them write their lists secretly then post all their listed items on the board. Have them list the animals they name on the board or on a large sheet of paper-perhaps a sheet cut in the shape of a mitten. Encourage them to try to name the animals in order. Ask the students to try to remember all of the animals that moved into the mitten.

The mitten brett