Book recommendation - The Mitten by Jan Brett

I've always loved children books. They contain wonderful insights and honest truths embedded in simple faith and innocence. We need a world like that. A storybook world that sweeps us off our feet from the harsh reality to another world which can help us make our current reality better.

One thing I love about MFW (My Father's World) K curriculum is the book list for every unit. Because of this book list, I find myself in the library every week searching for the recommended books, only to find uncover more treasures in the midst of my search. I usually need at least 3 library cards to check out the books.

Last week as Zech was learning about foxes, I discovered a gem of a book. When I taught the lower primary, I used to download lots of stuff from this website -http://www.janbrett.com/index.html. That was how I learned about the author Jan Brett. It wasn't until recently that I read a Jan Brett book to Zech.

'The Mitten' is a very heartwarming story about a boy who wanted white mittens badly. His grandmother made a pair for the boy and one day, while playing, he lost a mitten in the snow. It was cold and one by one, the animals managed to squeeze themselves inside the mitten.

 

I love the ending. Just a picture which tells a thousand words.

In the book pack, I included a tangram activity which I printed from http://filefolderfun.com/TangramGame. Printed out one with shapes outline and one without. The one with shapes outline was a back up in case Zech found it hard to complete the other one. He needed a more challenging activity so decided to let him try the one without the shapes outline. He could manage with some help from me.

Another activity in the book pack was some props for retelling. Printed the props from Jan Brett website. Previously, Zech had tried his hand at show and tell. He did a really funny one about his rock. This time, I wanted to increase the challenge and let him try retelling which was really not easy.

I read the story to him twice and modeled the retelling for him. He caught on quite fast though he wasn't that confident. We tried a second time with me modeling the retelling again before he did it. After practicing a few times, he got better.

When he was ready, I got him to retell the story to his papa and brother.

This activity is challenging for young children. But Zech enjoyed it even though there's lots of room for improvement be it diction, clarity or holding of props.

I highly recommend  'The Mitten' to all young kids who love reading like Zech. Try retelling with this story or other simple stories with  a repetitive style. Eric Carle's books are good choices too. Reading has been the most enjoyable activity in our home. I hope yours too.