The Mitten – Project Agenda
Two classrooms will be paired up for each session. Before the videoconference session, each class will read the story The Mitten by Jan Brett. The class will use the mitten cut-outs and animals (links below or download from previous webpage) to create a mitten with animals. Each class will then learn about each animal in the story and write clues about each animal. The classes will then connect via a videoconference to have the class guess what animal the other class has hidden in their mitten by the clues given.
Pre-Conference Activity:
1. Read the mitten by Jan Brett in your classroom
2. Printthemitten cut-out pages from http://www.janbrett.com/pdf/mitten_glove_coloring_page.pdfandhttp://www.janbrett.com/pdf/mitten_glove_coloring_page_reversed.pdf
3. Printthe animal cut-out page from http://www.janbrett.com/pdf/mitten_glove_animals_coloring_page.pdf
4. Choose an animal for your class to describe to another class**
5. Brainstorm questions students might ask distant students during the Q&A session at the end? What would they like to know about the distant class’s class, school, community, etc?
**In the past, some classes like to share the clues they created for each animal and have the distant class guess who the animal is. Teacher-partners should confer to decide whether they will give clues for 1 animal or multiple animals during the videoconference.
Videoconference Activity:
· 5 min - introduce yourselves
o This should include visuals--ie, a map to point out school location. If you can, share digital photo(s) of school, school grounds, and/or community. A PowerPoint slide show with one photo per slide works well.**
**Need help? Contact Susan Neale at for how-tos. Printed materials may be shared either by sending the content over your VC unit or by using a computer with a preset set on the computer screen.
· 5 min - share favorite part of the story
· 20 min -"Guess the animal in the mitten" (each class describes one animal to the other group, unless teachers have decided to share more than one animal). After the distant class has guessed, the student takes the animal out of the mitten.**
** A document camera is a great tool for showing a close up of the animal. Or you can set a camera preset zoomed in on an easel, and then place the animal on the easel for a close up look.
· 10 min - show each other the other decorated mittens and ask questions. Q&A might include questions about “The Mitten,” other Jan Bret books, or about the distant class’s school or community.