More Fun with The Mitten

Here's another great activity I've been using with my preschoolers this week.  It's a simplified version of The Mitten by Jan Brett made into a printable book that the kids can take home.  It has repetitive text, so little ones can quickly join in with retelling the story, and it's folded accordion-style so the mitten gets bigger and bigger and BIGGER as the story progresses.   It's so fun!   I made two versions.  One with the animals printed on each page, and one with animals to cut and paste on each page.  Here's what the pages of the printable look like:

I'm going to show you how to put it all together to make a book.  Cut out each of the story strips and one mitten.  Cut the mitten in half, following the dotted line.  To assemble the book, I always start from the left side and work my way to the right.  Glue along the left edge of the strip that has the mole on it. Place the left mitten piece on top of the strip, matching up the edge of the mitten with the dotted line of the tab that has the glue.  Be sure to glue the story strip in the center of the mitten.  It should look like this:

Next, fold the rabbit page to the left, like this:

and fold the hedgehog page behind the animal page to the right, accordion-style.  Be sure to fold directly on the dotted lines between the pages.  It should look like this when you're finished with the first strip:

Next, glue the right edge of the hedgehog page, and glue the story strip that has the owl on it on top of the glue tab, matching up the dotted lines.

 Continue to fold these pages like an accordion, folding the owl to the left, the badger to the right, etc.  It should look like this:

Repeat for the remaining two strips, gluing on the tabs and folding in alternating directions.   At this point, if you collapse your accordion strips into a stack,"The End"  should be facedown on top of the animals in the snow.  Open the page and fold back the glue tab to the right of "The End" along the dotted line like this:

Glue along the edge that is folded back. Place the right side of the mitten piece on top of the glue tab, making sure that it's centered, like this:

When it's all folded together, it looks like this:

It looks harder to put together than it actually is.  It's just a little folding and a little gluing.  You'll get the hang of it pretty quickly!

My little ones and their mommies have LOVED this one.  If you love it, too, you can find it at my TpT store here.

Stay warm and cozy!