The Gingerbread Man

At Silvercrest Elementary they have a different theme for each week in December. One week was about the Grinch and another was about Gingerbread stories. I wanted to continue teaching the children on recognizing the difference between major and minor events, so I decided to do one more story and since it was the Gingerbread stories week, I went with the Gingerbread Man. Like I did for Starry Safari, I had the kids gather around as I read the book to them. Then we talked about the major and minor events of the story. They were identifying the events faster than with the first story! After we discussed the story, we started the book over and began putting movement to it. The story began with the making of the gingerbread man. First with his head, then body, then arms and legs. I liked this part, because it gave the students a chance to explore different ways of moving different body parts. As we continued the story there were some pages that I decided to skip. Before I skipped the page I asked them why I could skip it? Was it a major or minor event? Does the story line change if I skipped it? Some were faster at responding than others, but they came to the correct conclusion. It was a minor event that did not change the course of the story. The first few times I had the kids dance the story, I allowed and even encouraged them to shout, "Run! Run, as fast are you can! You can't catch me I'm the Gingerbread Man!" They had fun with that. After a few times through I had them try it as silently as they could. I personally liked the silent way better. :) I did not like it just because it was quiet, but because they weren't using words to convey the story, they were using their movement. I also had a little fun with the ending. At the end of the story the fox tossed its head, throwing the Gingerbread Man into the air, and with a SNAP of its jaws the fox ate the Gingerbread Man whole. For this ending, I had all the kids do their coolest jump (signifying the fox tossing its head) and when they landed they clapped their hands (signifying the SNAP of the fox's jaws). It was a lot of fun and I think the kids enjoyed it. Again towards the end of class, I split them up into two groups and had half of them watching and the other half dancing. Then, after the first group danced we discussed what the "audience members" saw. What events did they see? Were those major or minor events, etc. By the end of class, I felt confident that the students understood this concept pretty well. It was GREAT!