Books for a Gingerbread Theme

One of my favorite themes to do! We read the classic gingerbread stories, then those about other runaway foods. We can chart the patterns in the stories-use those patterns to make predictions. Also, lots of ways to compare and contrast.

A fun story to read-aloud. Gingerbread Baby is a little rascal but is trapped in a very creative way in the end.

A Louisiana-themed runaway food story.

The cowboy is running from desert animals instead of farm animals, but unfortunately suffers the same tragic fate as the original character.

The Gingerbread Baby searches for a friend.

The girl outsmarts the fox-we know girls rule right?!

The tortilla runs away from desert animals.

Gingerbread Persuasion

We have been working on writing persuasive text. After reading some of the Gingerbread stories, I asked my students what they would say to "persuade" the Gingerbread cookie not to run away.

Basically it's bribery or a promise not to eat him, but it's a start. :) 

Not sure that's very persuasive :) .

 

Gratitude Projects

Having my students complete rigorous activities regularly is very important to me. I believe the way you can make an activity more challenging is to ask them to dig deeper. We talk a lot about gratitude in our class. I asked them to create a poster detailing 8 things they were grateful for. Everyone is grateful for their parents and family-I asked them to thing more deeply about everyday things they maybe did not consider-but that you were glad to have in your life. We did a rough draft and then they drew/sounded out their words to create their posters.

Teachers Are Grateful For.....

I like to use the concept of Multiple Perspectives from Depth and Complexity with my Kinder students. One way I do that this time of year is to imagine what a character or person is grateful for. I asked my students to imagine they were teachers. What would you be thankful for?

Culturally Sensitive Native American Units

I have always been fascinated by Native American culture. There are so many things about the traditions of tribes that I admire. The way they cared about the Earth and did not waste anything. The way they passed down stories from elders generation after generation.

Today, it bothers me to see their culture reduced to crafts with feather headbands and grocery bag vests. There is so much more to teaching about these groups of people.

Some literature I recommend:

One of my new favorites. A story about how traditional foods can help families remember the past and make future memories.

A sweet story about an Inuit newborn and the gifts the Arctic animals bring to welcome him into the world.

Her uncle takes her to a local powwow and she sees the traditional dress, listens to the traditional music of her tribe.

This is an older book, but I think a classic. The girl loved the wild horses and works to set them free.

Scholastic has this book for $1. I bought a copy for each student. We talk a lot about gratitude in my class and this fits right into that theme.

Thunder Boy Jr. is named after his Dad and wishes he had a cooler name. They end up coming up with the coolest name of all for him.

So many Native Americans have made so many contributions to our society. This goes into detail about just a few.

There are many crafts you can do with your kiddos that will help them learn about Native American traditions that don't just help perpetuate stereotypes. We painted with mud like they used to use in their cave paintings. There were activities about all the different kinds of structures they would build-adobe, wigwams, tipis--then the students designed their own homes using materials from nature. You can make rainsticks or decorate patterns using shapes like the indigenous people did. There are many activities we can do that respect the culture of these fascinating people.