Mitten Matching Time!

Kids love to play with ordinary things ...  so, when I show them a basket of mittens and tell them that we will be playing "games" all week with them, they are thrilled! Little do they know that I am sneaking in all sorts of math skills, like sorting, matching, patterning, etc.  And, YOU CAN TOO!

I am lucky to have a big basket of hand-knitted mittens of all shapes and colors (thank you, Gigi!), but you can use whatever is around your house - or even create pairs of paper mittens first as an art project. Here are some fun activities:

Mitten Patterns - use your collection to make two-part and three-part patterns (e.g. red, blue, red, blue, etc.)

Mitten Hide and Seek - have each child pick a mitten (or lay out the mittens in a row if playing with one or two children). Hide the match somewhere in the room, school or house and have the "matchers" find them and lay them out in matches. Repeats are always requested! 

Mitten Storm - same idea but you toss the formerly hidden mittens up, like a tornado, in a large area and they run to find their matches. It only takes a minute but gives a little exercise and practices those matching skills!  

Mitten Chain - each child gets two different mittens and puts them on their hands - when all (you need a group) have two mittens, have pairs hold matching hands, one at a time, until human chains are made - sometimes a few chains, sometimes one long one. 

 Mitten Races - each child gets a mitten and the paired one goes into a bin. Line children up at one side of a room or play area. Scatter the matches a distance away from the group, on another line (to prevent crashes!) and call them in pairs or threes to race to get the mitten, put it on, and get back to their starting points. Fun!

 

Now, have a mitten brainstorm ... have your child use their imagination to come up with more ideas for games with mittens! (Ours wanted to pretend wash and hang them in the housekeeping area!)

Have fun!