The primary focus of this reading is to read the story and talk about new vocabulary. Read the series of pages before you ask the questions.
The Reading Comprehension Best Practice for this book is Answering Questions During Reading. Your child and you will be looking for connections between the text and the illustrations. They complement each other by providing different information to aid comprehension of the whole story. Remember any questions that occurred to your child and you as you enjoyed the illustrations. Look for answers to those questions as your read the text.
Pages 1 – 5:
~Why doesn’t Baba want to knit white mittens for Nicki? (Answer is in the text.)
~Why do you think she changes her mind and knits white mittens for Nicki?
Pages 6 – 9:
~Find the mole’s tunnels.
~On page 6, what word means the same as tunneling? (burrowed)
~Is a snowshoe rabbit similar to the rabbits that live around your home? Discuss.
~What are the snowshoe rabbits big kickers? (his back legs)
Pages 10 – 19:
There are many unique vocabulary words on these pages.
~On page 10, snuffling: sniffling, breathing through the nose in a noisy way. Why might a hedgehog snuffle? (Snuffling is a sound that hedgehogs make, along with grunts and squeals.)
~jostled: bumped, pushed, or shoved. Why do the mole and the snowshoe rabbit allow the hedgehog to jostle them? (They don’t want to be pricked by his prickly spines)
~On page 12, commotion: noisy disturbance. What causes the commotion that attracts the owl? (the animals trying to fit into the mitten)
~talons: claws. Point to the owl’s talons.
~On page 14, what are the badger’s diggers? (short front legs. Badgers are fierce fighters.)
~ On page 17, waft: light, gentle breeze.
~drowsy: sleepy
~On page 18, lumbered: to move in a clumsy, heavy way.
~What does plumped up mean? (full and stretching out)
~Take time to go back over each of the animals in the mitten. Recall each of the reasons the animals allow a new animal into the mitten.
Pages 20 – End:
~Why does the bear allow the little meadow mouse to sit upon his nose?
~ On page 25, silhouetted: to show an outline of an object against a lighter background
~What happens to the animals?
~Is having white mittens a good idea?