Finger Puppets & Jan Brett Stories

In first grade we explored setting and characters with Jan Brett's The Umbrella and The Mitten by creating similar finger puppet stories.  In The Umbrella, a boy drops his umbrella and one by one rainforest animals pile inside. When it gets full, the umbrella tips over and the animals fall out. In The Mitten, a boy loses his mitten and northern animals climb inside. When the mitten is full, a bear sneezes and all of the animals fly out. First graders were given a template of a story and had to fill in the main character, the object that animals would climb into, the setting, and create an ending. For the animals, each group was given random finger puppets. Students filled in their story, created an ending, and presented it to the class, puppet show-style. View an example below. To see all of the Jan Brett Stories, go to our School Tube page and browse or search for "Jan Brett Stories & your teacher's name."