I love using props to retell or act out a story we have read. As I read aloud the Ukrainian folktale, The Mitten, by Alvin Tresselt I used these posterboard animals to illustrate the story. When each animal approaches the mitten and then climbs inside in the story, I add them to the inside of our large posterboard mitten. (It is made from two posterboards attached together with Velcro along the edges and the bottom is left open.) The best part is when the cricket causes the mitten to rip apart, I rip apart our mitten and the animals go flying!
This is my daughter showing the size of our mitten!
After reading this folktale aloud, we also read The Mitten, by Jan Brett and compare and contrast the two stories by making a Venn Diagram.
