Sure and Begorrah, 'tis the Gingerbread Man!

What's that, you say?  You were expecting a leprechaun in March?  Well, you have to expect the unexpected as a kindergarten teacher!


We have begun our six week unit on folktales. I really think it is the most popular, most fun unit that I've created as a kindergarten teacher. The kids are so engaged and so enthusiastic!  I'm constantly hearing, "This is so much fun!"  and "I love school more than anything!"  Each week, I select a different folktale to share with my class.  These are the six folktales:

The Gingerbread Man

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Stone Soup

The Little Red Hen

The Three Little Pigs

Here is what we do each day for The Gingerbread Man.  You can use it as a prototype for the rest of the folktales.  Maybe one day I will post my ideas for each of the other folktales...

Monday:  I bring in a huge unbaked, yet-to-be decorated gingerbread man.  I show it to the children, telling them that I love to make cookies and made this one for them to share.  However, we have to bake it.  We put it in the oven (which is not turned on) in the teacher's lounge.  When we come back later, it is not in the oven (because I've arranged for someone to remove it and hide it.)  A large note tells the children

I like writing the note on the parchment paper that covered the gingerbread man.

Then we go back to the room and discuss what might have happened.  After hearing their reactions, I tell them my version of the folktale.  I put on a pretty shawl and explain that all folktales were originally told this way because, in the old days, there were no books.  

I DO use cut-out characters and settings which I created myself because children seem to need the visuals to pay attention and comprehend new material.  These used to be flannel board pieces but now I just set them in a pocket chart on an easel as I tell the story:

I have also created a poster of the refrain (or repeated words) for each folktale.  This becomes our shared reading piece for the week.  As I tell the story, I point to the words in the refrain and the children soon join in the reading.

Afterwards, the children identify the characters, settings, and events in the story.  Then they practice their handwriting by neatly copying laminated phrases from the folktale.  This is not an original idea but here is a picture of the materials:

Tuesday: I show them a collection of different versions of the folktale and read one of them aloud.  I really like to read The Gingerbread Cowboy because there are different characters and settings.  I continue to display the refrain and the children share in its reading at the appropriate points in the story. We compare the two versions which they have heard so far.

Wednesday: We read another version of the story, often The Gingerbread Boy by Richard Egielski because, once again, there are characters and settings which differ from the original version.  And we continue to include the refrain as a shared reading portion of the read-aloud.

Thursday:  I read aloud a classic version of the folktale from an anthology.  This means there are no pictures for the children to view.  Having heard the story three times now, almost everyone can attend to the auditory learning experience.  Speaking of developing listening skills, we also listen to a song for each folktale which I've downloaded from I-Tunes.  

Afterwards, we create our own puppet shows.  The puppets are ones that I've purchase from TpT or other websites.  The backdrops of the settings are mostly my own ideas and maybe I will publish them all on TpT one day.  For The Gingerbread Man, the children draw the cottage, a field, a barn, a school, the forest, and a river on a sentence strip.  As individuals finish, they gather on our mat spots and retell the folktale to one another.

Friday:  On the last day of the week, we enact the folktale. First, we retell the story by sitting in a circle and passing around a fun prop representing the story.  Each child tells a little bit of the story and we try to tell a lot of details so 20-25 children can each speak. 

We pass around this fun prop as we retell the story.

For the dramatization,I have simple costumes or, at least, sentence strip hats with cutouts of the characters for each of the folktales.  Over the course of six weeks, every child has a leading role in at least one play.  Those who aren't acting are the ones to read and repeat the refrain as I narrate the folktale.

This "gingerbread boy" was very convincing as he positioned himself on a "cookie sheet" in the "oven."

We also do a simple craft project on Fridays which relates to the folktale.  For example, everyone cuts out and decorates a gingerbread man.  They also make a sign for it to hold saying, "Eat more (Oreos, chocolate chips, sprinkles)!" for their gingerbread man to hold.

And, of course, everyone enjoys a small piece of the giant gingerbread man! 

Here is a nice coloring page freebie.

Sharing Classroom Information With Kindergarten Parents

Backpack mail. Photocopies. Emails. Handwritten notes. Home visits. Phone calls. Text messages. Teacher websites. Apps like Seesaw and Remind. Handwritten notes pinned to shirts. And newsletters.  Teachers reach out to parents in countless ways on countless occasions.  

Some parents want to know A LOT about their children's education.  They are interested in the curriculum and how to support their kids at home.  Other parents are satisfied if their children come home happy and with some evidence of having done something in school. And, of course, there are parents who are too busy, overwhelmed, or just not that interested in schooling.

In my experience as a public school teacher, there has never been a way to guarantee parent engagement.  However, that hasn't kept me from trying!  I have used all of the above communication tools with my families.  The one that I have used most conscientiously has been the weekly newsletter.  

Over the years, I've experimented with many different newsletter formats.  I'm sharing my favorite here.  I've used it in one form or another for most of my 23 year career as a kindergarten teacher.  The reason I like it is that it provides parents with just enough information on a daily basis.  It tells them something about each day, offers a talking point for parent and child, mentions the homework, and reminds about the snack provider.  Here is a sample:

I use #10 font in Comic Sans for my newsletter.

I share an example of my newsletter with parents at the very first opportunity whether that's kindergarten orientation, back-to-school night, conferences, or when they join our classroom later in the year.  I show them how to tuck it into the plastic sleeve in the back of the vinyl take-home folder we provide each child.  Then, it remains there for handy reference throughout the week.

If you would like a copy of my newsletter template, it's yours for the clicking!

How do you share information with parents?

Does Dr. Seuss Belong in Today's Kindergarten?

Does Dr. Seuss belong in kindergarten?  What am I asking?  My readers must think I'm like the Grinch who stole Christmas.  How dare I even ask the question?!

This past week, our entire school (kindergarten through second grade) listened to a different Dr. Seuss book each day.  A team of teachers selected the books, located the best read-aloud versions on the internet, and asked us all to share these books via our interactive whiteboards. 

These are the books our entire school read this week.

We listened to/viewed Fox in Socks first.  Within five minutes, one child piped up, "This is so lo--ong!"  A moment or two later, another child wondered aloud, "How many more pages!?" When we finished the book, I asked the children to rate it with one, two or three finger '"stars."  There were a variety of responses.  I called on one child who had rated the book with three stars. He said, "It was weird and I like weird stuff!"  Then I called on a child who rated it only one star.  He said, "It was weird and I DON"T like weird stuff!"

We don't actually stick stars on our fingers but kindergarteners love to rate everything!

I could totally relate to both of these boys' opinions. As a child, my younger brother loved listening to Dr. Seuss.  I couldn't believe it when he actually let me have his beloved copy of If I Ran the Circus when I first started teaching in 1977.  Conversely, as a child, I didn't like Dr. Seuss read-alouds too much.  I was much happier listening to my parents and teachers read The Story About Ping and Make Way for Ducklings.   

Which did you prefer as a child?

Although I wasn't crazy about Dr. Seuss books when they were read to me, I clearly remember my pride in being able to read One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.  And I never missed the annual holiday TV showing of How The Grinch Stole Christmas!

Maybe it is just a matter of personal preference.  After all, Dr. Seuss, aka Theodor Geisel, was a prolific writer who wrote 45 children's books.  After that first day of our Seuss week, I thought I'd withhold judgment: maybe my kindergarteners would find a book that they liked!

Surely, one or two of these books would be a "hit" in kindergarten?!

I read them The Cat in the Hat, if only to clarify for them that a CAT was not the author of this book and the others we were going to read.  If you teach kindergarten, you know that many children confuse Dr. Seuss with The Cat.  Mission accomplished, I then asked the children what they liked or didn't like about this book.  Right away, a child said, "I didn't like that the mom left the kids alone in the house!"  And another child said, "I didn't like that the kids let The Cat in the house. He was a bad stranger!" 

Abandoned childen?  An intruder in the house?

It was this classroom discussion that raised the question in my mind, "Is Dr. Seuss outdated?"  A colleague of mine (also a blogger) had shared the opinion of some educators who are concerned about the racial and ethnic stereotypes and caricatures in the Seuss books.  An article in the School Library Journal this past September 12, 2017, was entitled "Is the Cat in the Hat Racist: Read Across America Shifts Away from Dr. Seuss and Toward Diverse Books."  Here is the link, if you are interested.

In defense of Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss), he was actually a very thoughtful, compassionate, anti-war person (think of The Butter Battle and Yertle the Turtle.)  I read a terrific (if a bit lengthy) article in an archived 1960 article in the New Yorker magazine.  It tells the story of how Geisel and his wife produced a film, "Design for Death," which won an Oscar in 1947. The message of the film was that the Japanese were a tranquil people who had been overrun by ruthless leaders.  The producer tried to liven up the film by inserting a frightening scene where an American tank barrelled through a crowd of Japanese.  The Geisels sneaked into the studio after hours and clipped and discarded that footage.  Nonetheless, Hollywood prevailed, and the posters advertising this film were horrific.  Here is the link.

We persevered through Dr. Seuss week in kindergarten!  Both If I Ran the Zoo and The Sleep Book .... put the children to sleep.  Literally.  

Wacky Wednesday was more appealing. The kids enjoyed looking for the "wacky" things in the illustrations.  They also enjoyed modeling their "wacky" hairstyles.

Green Eggs and Ham  was a familiar read for many of my students this year.  Many enjoyed it as a shared reading.  We had a good discussion about the value of trying new foods and other new experiences in life.

During the week, several children brought in Dr. Seuss books from home.  Of course, I loved that they made the connection and cared enough to bring in the books to share with us.  I also appreciated the opportunity to share the difference between a book by Dr. Seuss and a book in The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library and Beginner Books.  Books in these popular collections were written by other authors. Interestingly, I learned through my research that Geisel began these ventures to support other authors who had been inspired by his style of writing.  I think I was able to explain this to the kindergarteners in a way that some really appreciated Geisel's kindness.

And, of course, we did projects related to each book.  This year, I only selected projects that reinforced the "word play" or phonemic awareness aspect of Dr. Seuss books.  Here are pictures of the projects we did.  None of them are entirely original but all were effective tie-ins with Dr. Seuss books.

The students wrote words that rhymed with "hat" in boxes in every stripe of their hats.
They colored the stripes, cut out the hats, and glued them to blue paper.

The class had fun cutting out and gluing together heads and bodies of different animals.
They wrote the first syllable in each animals name to come up with new creations!

Everyone did their best to write upper case and lower case Ww's where they belonged and then they drew themselves and their wacky hair.

Of course, after we read The Sleep Book, we had to draw ourselves wearing the pajamas we wore to school that day.

So, upon reflection, what have I decided about the relevance of Dr. Seuss in today's kindergarten?  In my opinion, certain books are more appropriate than others for this age.  I like that some of the books lend themselves to important discussions about making good choices in life.  I think Seuss books are useful as mentor texts for experimenting with word play or phonemic awareness.  

What do YOU think about Dr. Seuss books in kindergarten?