So last week, we had our Gingerbread week at school! I have to say this is one of my favorite weeks of school. We read four different versions of the Gingerbread Man and compared/contrasted each one. Each story was special in it's own way!
Our first story that we read was the traditional version, The Gingerbread Man by Karen Schmidt. This one is your usual version with the gingerbread man running away from the man, lady, and boy, plus some animals, and townspeople, etc. The boy Gingerbread Man met his match when he was outsmarted by the clever fox! It's a good way to start the week off!
We also read the "Flat Gingy" story on Monday, as well. Flat Gingy is a home-connection project that our class is participating in. Flat Gingy is the younger brother of the Gingerbread Man, and he wants to come hang out with us. The kiddos were super excited to make their own Flat Gingys to go on adventures with. Flat Gingys should be coming back to school today! I can't wait to read about their adventures with the kiddos.
Gingy came with me to see the Hunger Games movie and he sat through an all day training on Saturday! He's so dedicated to teaching the kiddos!
Next, we read The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett. This was a sweet story about a runaway gingerbread baby, who was taken out of the over too early! He, of course ran away from everyone, but then met with a clever boy who created a gingerbread house for him to live, and they lived happily ever after...or as long as good as it gets for cookies in their own houses!
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Then, we read The Gingerbread Man Loose in School by Laura Murray. This was a cute spin to the traditional tale because the Gingerbread Man wanted to be around the students who made him. He searched through the whole school until he found the principal's office with her fun spinning chair! She brought him back to the kids who were searching for him and created him his own gingerbread desk and chair.
Our last and silliest version was The Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieszka. In this story, the old lady makes a man out of stinky cheese, but then decided that she didn't want to eat him because he smelled so bad! None of the characters wanted to eat him because of his stench! Ha ha! He ended up falling apart in the river because the fox gagged when he smelled him. (Spoiler alert! )
After reading the different versions of the story, we voted on our favorite. After our voting...Gingerbread Baby won!...we journaled about our favorite versions.
We also had one of our class moms come and play a Gingerbread game with the kiddos one morning!
On Friday, we took turns reading a Reader's Theater version of the traditional tale (on sale in my TPT store!). My kiddos turned out to be inspiring actors! They got so into character. One of them even said, "Ms. Schulze, this is so fun!" in the middle of the reading. I love seeing them so engaged!
We are totally getting in character!
Yes...he's snorting!
I have to say nothing takes the cake...err cookie...more than our culminating activity: Making out own gingerbread cookies! The kiddos made these cookies by themselves (for the most part!) They poured ingredients, rolled out the dough, used the cookie cutter, and decorated their own cookies! Did I mention how much I love cooking in the classroom with the kiddos? So many cool things can be done with cooking...measuring, following directions, writing, graphing, teamwork, collaboration, etc. Let's just say, I love it!
Waiting patiently for the cookies to come out...
We had so much fun reading and comparing the different versions! Maybe next year we will add one of these fun tales!
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