The Mitten, author Jan Brett to visit School, Facebook Contest

Chances are you've probably read one of Jan Brett's children's books. She has authored/illustrated over 30 books with 36 Million books in print.  I am amazed by Brett's beautiful illustrations and appreciate her kindness to share her talent with her readers through her books as well as hundreds of FREE printables on her website.  She has coloring pages, printable activities, calendars and more.  

SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THIS CONTEST!

HAVE JAN BRETT VISIT YOUR SCHOOL IN 2011
"Starting Monday, January 3, 2011 "like" Jan Brett on Facebook and win a free Jan Brett visit to your school or library. The school or library that has the most parents, teachers, librarians, friends, or supporters who "like" Jan Brett on Facebook (closes April 2, 2011) will win a free school or library visit from Jan in the 2011 - 2012 school year." Click here for more details on the author's contest.

This would be so fun to have the kids meet the author of the books they love to read. I'm going to spread the word at my school, and point them to Jan Brett's website for a variety of printable resources.

One of our family's favorite books by Brett is "The Mitten." The tale of a little boy who loses one of his mittens and a group of animals find it and snuggle inside. (Our second favorite is the "Gingerbread Baby.")

Brett has clipart of the animals from "The Mitten" that you can print and put inside a mitten as you read the story. I decided to print two copies. My 5 year old colored them, I cut them, then we put one set inside his mitten as we read the story. 

Next, we gathered 8 pair of mittens around the house and I had my son hide an animal in each mitten (the mittens didn't necessarily match).  Then we took turns trying to find the matching animals, just like a matching card game.

He loved the Mitten Match Game and kept wanting to hide the animals from me to see if he could trick me.

 The Mitten by Jan Brett 

 You can go to Barnes and Noble right now to hear Jan Brett read The Mitten for online storytime.

Teaching Heart Mom Blog has a variety of activities that go with The Mitten too.

If you want to try using mitten clipart, PreKinders has a cute Mitten Match game you can print.

Jan Brett recently published a new book fall 2010 called "The 3 Little Dassies." She created a Free 2011 calendar you can print with artwork from the book. I need to find a copy of this book, it looks darling. It is a South African telling of the 3 Little Pigs.

Remember to go visit Jan Brett on Facebook to enter to win a visit to your school or library.
Linking to:
Hope is the Word, Read Aloud Thursdays (See Amy's post on reading owl books & disecting Owl pellets)

9th Day of Christmas Books: Animal Christmas Books

Celebrating The Twelve Days of Christmas Books

On the 9th day of Christmas Books, obSEUSSed gave to me

9 Animal Christmas Books

8 I Spy Christmas Tree Games

7 Santa Stories

6 Nativity Activities

5 Grinch Cookies

A Nutcracker

3 Mitten Trees

2 Snowman Earrings

and the Berenstain Bear Family.

This is the bear we saw at Yellowstone this summer. We did not want to get any closer.  This poor bear will probably miss Christmas this year while he is hibernating. 

But the bear from Bear Stays Up (by Karma Wilson) won't miss out because his friends come up with all sorts of activities to keep him busy, in the end the friends fall asleep and Bear makes a surprise for them.

My kids love these books that tell of winter animals experiencing Christmas for the first time. It is a great time to explain hibernation.
Another favorite is Froggy. We love the entire Froggy book series by Jonathan London. Froggy's Best Christmas is about he and his friends that normally miss Christmas but they get to have fun experiencing the festivities all together for the first time.

The Mitten, by Jan Brett, has amazing illustrations. ACTIVITY: You can go to Barnes & Nobel online right now for Storytime where you can hear Jan Brett read this book to your kids.

This next book is a favorite from my childhood.  We all love the Little Critter book series by Mercer Mayer. Merry Christmas Mom and Dad is a classic Little Critter tale where he tries to help his parents for Christmas, but always seems to mess up.  I had this on cassette tape when I was a child and still have it but need to find a cassette player so I can play it for my kids. It is a darling story.

This is a funny book that is part of the Moostache series by Margie Palatini.  This is Mooseltoe (Moostache at Christmas time).

Here are some other Christmas Animal Stories I need to check out.

Humphrey's First Christmas by Carol Heyer. The illustrations look beautiful.(Plus my high school mascot was a camel named Humphrey.)  (Spoiler Alert:) It is a story of a stubborn camel who wants to find his blanket, but ends up giving it to baby Jesus in the end. Great message for your children about giving.

The Crippled Lamb, by Max Lucado.  I love reading the special messages in other Max Lucado books and this one looks amazing about a crippled sheep that feels out of place but has a special role on Christmas Eve, helping children learn that we all have a special purpose in life.