Jan Brett The Mitten Activities: Sew a Mitten
Welcome to the Story Book Advent! Today my book focuses on Jan Brett’s The Mitten.
My fellow bloggers and I are working our way through December to bring you activity ideas based on Christmas and Winter books to count down to Christmas.
Jan Brett is a long-time favorite author in our family.
Her story telling is superb, but her incredibly complex, subtlety humorous and very textured illustrations transport you to another place. This post contains affiliate links.
Be sure to check out our other fun family-friendly kid activities and crafts!
Favorite Jan Brett Books
Some of our personal favorite books by Jan Brett include:
Sew A Mitten: A Jan Brett Activity
With two kids, one in Kindergarten and the other in 2nd grade, I’m always looking for ways to sneak in fine motor activities.
Whether you have toddlers or elementary-aged kiddos, fine motor skills are extremely important in learning how to write and becoming more proficient at it.
There are three ways I had the boys practice their fine motor skills and hand strength.
Step 1: I drew an outline of a mitten and encouraged them to follow the trace, using scissors to cut out their mittens.
Step 2: We used a hole puncher to create the holes we would use to “sew” the mitten together.
Some hole punchers are tougher to operate than others.
If you have toddlers, you will want to help them before they get too frustrated.
Step 3: We sewed together our mittens, which are currently “drying” in our craft room and waiting for the next wave of inspiration to get colored, drawn on or whatever creative outlet the boys are looking for.
I have pre-cut squares of construction paper in the wings in case they feel like working on patterns and gluing paper to their mittens.
While we were busy with our activity, we talked about the book, recounting our favorite parts and thinking about the local animals that could crawl into our own mittens.
Tip: To make a good tip in order to sew the yarn, just use a small piece of masking tape and wrap it around the end.
It will help stiffen the end and make it a bit easier to saw the yarn through the holes.
Story Book Advent
Because we now how much you love ideas from around the world, we’ve gathered together bloggers from around the world to share their favorite book with you and bring it alive through, crafts, activities, play and family fun that you can enjoy with kids of all ages.
Join the Story Book Advent to get some amazing ideas!