The Mitten Printable Emergent Reader for Preschool and Kindergarten

Children practice a variety of early literacy skills with this free The Mitten printable book. It’s one of The Mitten activities we’ve enjoyed doing over the years. You can grab your copy at the bottom of this post.

Jan Brett is one of my favorite children’s authors.

Of course, my students (and my son) like to point out that I have a ton of favorite authors.

Jan Brett is definitely on my top 10 list though!

Are you following my Book-Inspired Activities Pinterest board?

The Mitten printable for retelling a fun book by a favorite author

What You'll Find in This Post

The Mitten Printable Early Reader

Jan Brett’s book The Mitten is a consistent hit with my students every year, and it’s a blast to retell the story.

I put together this The Mitten printable for young kids to work on a variety of early literacy skills.

How to assemble the emergent reader

First, print out the free printable (you can find it at the bottom of this post).

Then fold each page in half, with the printed sides out. Place the folded pages one on top of the other, with the front cover on top.

Be sure that the folded sides of the pages are on the right. Staple together along the left side of the mini book.

The Mitten printable for kids to read and retell — All the pages are folded in half, ready to be assembled!

Here’s a video to show you how to assemble my emergent readers:

**Using The Mitten printable book with children**

Read Jan Brett’s The Mitten with the kiddos.

Have fun talking about the amazing illustrations, predicting which animal will be next, and discussing if it’s fiction or nonfiction.

Delve into some other fun retelling ideas, like these story rocks, with the children, too.

Once the children are well-versed in the story, introduce the emergent reader.

Explain that it’s their own version of The Mitten, starring all of the same animals!

Walk through the book, pointing out the different animals – say the animals’ names and help the children locate the matching word based on letter sounds. Talk about the different high frequency words in the book, and point out the book’s repetitive text.

Here are some ideas for using this printable book:

Read the book to and with the kids, and let them read the books on their own.
Bring out the story rocks and have the kids match the animals to those in the printable.
Write the sentences on sentence strips, then place the strips in a pocket chart. Add the pictures of the animals, too, on separate pieces of paper. Kids can read the words with pointers, and then match the sentences to the animal pictures.
Have the children color the animals in the black-and-white version.

Pair The Mitten printable with homemade story rocks for even more retelling fun

Related: Winter Songs for Preschoolers

Here’s a peek at the printable book:

Learning concepts explored with the early reader

So many early literacy concepts can be explored using The Mitten printable book. Here are just a few:

One-to-one correspondence (kids point to each word as they say the word)
Punctuation
The concept of a word (a word goes from space to space)
Left-to-right directionality, along with top-to-bottom directionality
Letter sounds
Sight words

The Mitten printable book for kids to retell the story by Jan Brett — The last page of the book, when the animals go flying from the mitten!

Would your children enjoy this The Mitten printable book? Let me know if you end up using it at home or in the classroom!

More Learning Fun with “The Mitten”

A week’s worth of printable preschool lesson plans based on The Mitten. Includes ideas for literacy, math, science, etc., AND extra printables to support the hands-on learning activities. Two sets available, depending on whether you’re homeschooling preschool or teaching in a preschool classroom.

Find the plans at Preschool Teacher 101 | Home Preschool 101 | Teachers Pay Teachers

The Mitten printable preschool lesson plans

This set includes hands-on learning activities, book suggestions, and the following printables:

Character Patterning Cards
Character Word Cards
Letter Matching Puzzles
Number Mitten Matching Sets
Mitten Matching Math Sets (Numbers, Number Words, Dots)
Animal Size Ordering and Sorting Sets
Story Retelling Set
Mitten Shape Matching Set
Animals of The Mitten Science Journal
The Mitten Retelling Emergent Reader

Get the plans at Preschool Teacher 101 | Home Preschool 101 | Teachers Pay Teachers

More Mitten-Themed Early Learning Activities

Mystery Mitten Letter Sound Game by Growing Book by Book
Mitten Letter Matching on a Clothesline by Mom Inspired Life
Mystery Mitten Tactile Counting Game for Preschool! by The Preschool Toolbox Blog
Pass the Mitten Storytelling Game by Capri + 3
Mitten Matching Activities for Preschool by Life Over C’s
Number Bonds 0-10 by Rainy Day Mum
The Mitten Experiment by Powerful Mothering
Mitten Sight Word Games by The Educators’ Spin On It

Get a Free The Mitten Printable Emergent Reader

The Mitten printable reader is available to members of Fun-A-Day’s free email community. If you’re already a member, click on the button below and enter your information to get the printable sent to your email inbox.

Not a member? No worries! Click on the button below and enter your information to join us. You’ll get the printable sent to your inbox as a welcome gift.

If you can’t see the button, click on the highlighted text below instead.

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Please note – many school districts have pop-up blockers enabled or very strict firewalls in place. If you’re on a school computer and can’t see the box that pops up asking for your email and name, this might be the case for your district. Using a non-school computer should solve that problem.

Originally published January 20, 2016.