Gingerbread Shared Writing

Over the past 2 weeks we have read many different versions of the Gingerbread Man.  We have talked about the similarities and differences in all of the stories and how they connect.  Last week read a story about a gingerbread that went to a school and we thought about what it would be like if a gingerbread man came to Bemis.  We decided that we wanted to create our own version of the Gingerbread Man and so came the story, "The Gingerbread Man and Bemis School."  Next we brainstormed all the places and people we would want him to go and meet and also how we wanted it to end.  We learned from the other stories that in some stories he gets eaten and in others he doesn't.  We put all of our ideas together and wrote the story as class.  Today our job was to illustrate.  Before we started we talked about how the pictures needed to match the words and also that we needed to make sure we followed our coloring three star rubric.  Children worked in pairs to illustrate one page of the book.  They were so excited and took total ownership in the page they were helping to create.  We will be sharing our story with Mrs. LaTarte's class at a later date.  Please take a look at our photo link to see your kiddo working!

Gingerbread Science

Today we did a very exciting science experiment with Mrs. Summers kids. We have been reading many versions of the Gingerbread Boy. We noticed that in many of the versions, the gingerbread cookie comes to a river. At the river he meets a fox. The fox knows that the cookie cannot go in the water and tricks him into climbing onto his back so he can take him across. The trusting cookie climbs onto the foxes back and the fox jumps into the water. The gingerbread cookie is then eaten by that tricky fox. This led us to wonder what would happen if the gingerbread boy had tried to cross the river himself. We set up an experiment where the children needed to make predictions about what might happen when the cookie went in the water. Many predicted that he would crumble, get soggy, sink to the bottom, fall apart, etc. We then placed a cookie inside a tub of water. After ten minutes we came out and had a discussion about our observations. We noticed that they were soft looking and wiggly and had gotten larger. We then left them in the water for 20 more minutes. When we came out to check on them, they had both floated to the top. When a kiddo tried to pick one up out of the water, the cookie completely fell apart. We talked about why this happened and drew many conclusions about cookies and liquid. Some children made the connection with what happens when they dunk oreos in milk. Our discussion led us to think about what the gingerbread could have done differently in the story so that he didn't have to choose between the fox and the river! Please talk with your child about what we did today- I am sure they will have lots to say.

Step Inside a Snowman

Today with our Boulan Buddies we did an art project and we also took a "step inside a snowman."  Before our buddies came we read the book Snowmen at Night.  It is a story about what all of our snowmen do at night while we are sleeping.  As a class we pretended to step inside a snowman body and think about what a snowman hears, may feel and sees.  Some of the kids came up with:

A snowman sees...

• children playing
• children wearing winter coats
• sky, moon
• trees
• snow
• cars going by in the road
• a house
• children making snow angels

A snowman hears...

• children laughing
• doors to the house open and shutting
• garage door going up and down
• snow crunching as people walk on it
• cars zooming by
• animals running by

A snowman feels...

• worried they may melt in sun
• lonely because they don't have friends
• happy because someone made them
• sad an animal ate their carrot nose

After their discussion they recorded their thinking and then made a snowman out of a coffee filter.  See our photo link for a project sample and also pictures of the kids in action.