Back to School

Today is our first day back with kids. This is my best class ever! They are so sweet and hardworking and darling. They are cooperative and smart. They make my life a lot of fun. Today I read Jan Brett's The Mitten, a Ukrainian Folk Tale about a boy named Nicki who asks his grandmother to make him some snow white mittens. She warns him that they might get lost in the snow and tries to reason with him on picking a different color. Nicki insists upon white. So, she knits him snow white mittens. Sure as sugar, Nicki loses one almost the instant he gets outside. He doesn't even notice for quite a while, he's so busy playing. While the mitten lays in the snow, woodland animals discover it and pile in, one by one, until a bear sneezes and all the animals get thrown about. Nicki sees his mitten floating down from the sky. The animals were gone so it was quite a curious sight. Upon his return, his grandmother is glad to see him safe and sound with both his mittens. However, she looks quizzically at the one mitten that has been stretched to more than twice it's original size. Gosh! It's cold today!