Claire+Stave

= //** K i n d e r g a r t e n** // = Visit this [|lesson plan] to see an effective way to teach Kindergartners the idea of [|scarcity].

//The Mitten//, by Jan Brett, is a folk story that demonstrates a case where scarcity effects a group of animals.

[[image:http://www.personal.psu.edu/kaf5027/blogs/kyle/The_Mitten.jpg width="180" height="144" align="left"]]
//The Mitten// is about a boy who asks his grandmother for white mittens. She warns him that if he takes them off, he will surely lose them in the snow, but she makes him some anyway. Just as his grandmother said, he loses one of his white mittens. One by one, different animals find the mitten and decide it would be a wonderful home for the winter. First comes a mole, then a rabbit, a hedgehog, an owl, a badger, a fox, a bear and, finally, a mouse. The mitten stretches, and s t r e t c h e s, and S T R E T C H E S. Then, the mouse tickles the bear's nose and he sneezes, knocking all of the animals out of the mitten. Later, the boy finds his mitten and returns home with it. His grandmother is left to wonder how it became so enormously stretched out. In the case of this folk story, the animals experience scarcity of space.

**Lesson Plan Objectives: **
//**Students will...**//
 * learn about the concept of scarcity concerning lack of space,
 * exercise their ability to count animals and remember the order of the animals who entered the mitten,
 * predict what might happen if a similar scarcity issue happened in real life, and
 * identify ways that this issue could have been avoided.

Lesson Plan Materials:
(NOTE: If you do not own a copy of this book, check with your school librarian or the public library to get a copy. The ISBN number is: 039921920X. The book is also available for purchase [|online]).
 * //The Mitten// by Jan Brett.
 * //The Mitten// [|worksheet] activity with a mitten and animal cutouts.
 * Construction paper, scissors, glue/staples, coloring crayons.
 * Pictures of the [|animals] who lived in the mitten.
 * A large cutout of a mitten to place on the floor.
 * The Jan Brett [|website] has several great activities to use with //The Mitten//.

Lesson Plan Overview:
After reading //The Mitten// to the students, the teacher can ask the students a number of encouraging questions to get their brains working:
 * What animals moved into the mitten? [Rabbit, hedgehog, owl, badger, fox, bear, and mouse.]
 * How many animals were there? [Eight.]
 * Why was the mitten a good place for the animals to live? [Warm, cozy, soft, etc.]
 * What happens when a lot of people want to live in one place and there isn't enough space for all of them? [Let answers vary.]
 * Key:** During this motivational introduction, help the students understand how this relates to the concept of scarcity.

Following the instructions on the worksheet, help the students construct their paper mitten and prepare their eight animals. Encourage the students to place the animals into their mitten (following the order of the story). Ask them if they think that many life-sized animals could fit into a real mitten.

Use yarn to attach each animal picture around the neck of eight children who will play the role of the animals. Instruct them to step onto cutout of a mitten (just large enough to accommodate eight small children) following the order of the animals in the story. Discuss the scarcity of space on the mitten cutout, and ask them if they would want to live there.

Lesson Plan Evaluation:
Ask the students questions relating to the concept of scarcity in the story that can also be related to their own lives. (Examples: How many people can go down a slide at one time? What if there are five people and only one cookie?). Then ask the students if they have ever experienced not having enough of something and having to share. Go into real world examples of scarcity and possible solutions, such as building taller buildings, getting a job, or planing more crops.
 * //Lead a class discussion.//**

====**Lesson Plan Comments:** ====

//**Robyn Eshelman:**// This is a really good and easy lesson plan to do with kindergarten students. If you create a flannel board story out of the characters, you can act out which characters find the mitten and use it as shelter, and also ask for some student participation by inviting the students up to the front of the class and putting specific characters into the mitten as well. By including the students as much as you can with the story, they will understand the concept better. After each new animal is put into the mitten, the teacher could ask the student who put it in if there was a lot of room left, or if it was getting crowded. The class as a whole could also be asked whether or not they believe any more animals would fit while going through the story. This way the children are trying to predict what will happen next before they read through what actually did happen. I believe that the questions at the end were also a nice closing to the project, and really summed up what the entire lesson was trying to prove: the concept of scarcity concerning the lack of space.

This lesson plan is definitely something that would be easy to use with kindergarten students. I think they would really like the story aspect of it, and would be able to get really into the learning aspect of it without a lot of conscious effort. The animals would get the kids really into it. And the idea of scarcity would really get driven home: kids would understand that the small amount of space meant that space was scarce for the animals. //**
 * //Kayla Macadam:

=
I really like this lesson plan! I think that the whole idea of a story being used to demonstrate these ideas of scarcity that are normally, hard to understand, is a really great idea. Using the animals to make it more fun and relatable is a good idea, especially for children of this young an age. The links that are provided are very helpful and will definitely help in the process of making a lesson plan. This lesson plan was very thorough and concise.However, I did think that the link to amazon to buy the book might be a little unnecessary, but other than that, great job! ======