The Mitten

Winter is well underway and we have been having fun with the story The Mitten by Jan Brett.

As usual we read the story and sequenced the story several times with different activities. To add something extra we decided to integrate art and literature by doing a lesson on Ukrainian designs in knitting. 

We started with this Smart Board Notebook file and briefly discussed how knitting is done and showing examples of clothing that is knitted.
The Notebook file is available at TPT for free.

Then we showed the students some examples of Ukrainian designs and had them describe what they saw: lines, shapes, colors, etc.

The last step was for the students to create their own Ukrainian design mitten.

Each student received a large mitten pre-traced onto a piece of white construction that had been folded in half. Using oil pastels, students drew their own Ukrainian design. The only rule was that they had to start at the top and go all the way to the bottom of the mitten with their patterns. After the students finished drawing, they used water colors to paint over the entire mitten (oil resist). After the mittens were dry the students cut them out. The students were really focused during this art lesson and each mitten is unique and beautiful!