Gingerbread News

We received our first post card and letter on Monday.

The children were interested, excited and inspired.

We also received this fantastic letter, via email, that contained stories 

of a little boy

whom met our gingerbread cookies in a park.

His mom edited the photos and added images of gingerbread cookies 

walking in the leaves, going down the slide

and climbing a tree with her son.

This news inspired some of our children to tell their own story about

the cookies.

Once they told their story an adult wrote it down for them

and we have started a story wall.

That afternoon one of our kingergarten teacher gave me a few 

stories that her students wrote.

"The gingerbread man is outside looking at the rainbow"

"The gingerbread man is running into the forest."

"The gingerbread man ran into the gym to play with the hoola hoops."

"The gingerbread girl is running away from a dinosaur, a cow and a horse."

We so look forward to reading more stories.

Making and Running a StoryWalk

A while back I was asked to share how I make a StoryWalk®.

I first heard about StoryWalks two years ago when I read about

 Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT who had created the first one.

StoryWalks have now been installed in 50 states and 11 countries.

After choosing which book I want to use I buy two copies.

Many times I can find one at a thrift store.

If not Scholastic is a great place to get books

at a very reasonable price.

I then cut the two books a part at the binding and glue each page to a piece of construction paper.

I number the pages so I can keep them in order.

Laminating each page helps protect them when outside.

We live in a very rainy climate so laminating is a must.

Next they are taped to a stake that has one end sharpened.

 Sometimes I like to add props with the book and this one worked

well to include the articles of clothing that appear in the story.

Now it's already to go outside.

The article of clothing was placed with each appropriate page.

Shoes that go 'clomp, clomp'.

Pants that go 'wiggle, wiggle'.

A hat that goes 'nod,nod'

and a pair of gloves that go 'clap, clap'.

And a head that goes 'BOO, BOO!".

Once it was all set up the families started at the cover page.

 The children are encouraged to walk or run to each page

then stop and try to read the pictures.

They also wait for the adults to arrive so they can read the story for them.

As we walked and read the children collected and carried the clothing.

I've done a lot of StoryWalks and the families love them.

This one we did as a group because we were collecting the clothes

but normally they are set up so the families can go at their own pace.

If you are familiar with this story "The Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything"

then you know that the story ends with the clothing making themselves

into a scarecrow.

So that is what we did.

The children collected leaves and stuffed the pants, shirt and gloves.

 Then we tried to put it altogether on a stick.

 But the pumpkin head was too heavy.

 He stood up as long as someone was supporting him.

So we decided to lean him up against a tree trunk.

We left him there and will visit again next month.

Scales

The families were invited to experiment with scales.

We asked them, "What happens when you put an animal on one side?"

How many do we need to put on the other side to make the scale balanced?

It took some calculation, some experimenting, some trial and error.

We learned that not all the animals weighed the same.

Even if they were the same size.

Runaway Gingerbread

Several years ago we pretended that our gingerbread cookie ran away

and asked friends and family from around the world to send us 

post cards of what the cookie might see and do

if they visited them.

It was a huge success.

It was so exciting to receive postcards from all over.

This year we are doing it again.

It started last Thursday when I invited James, a baker from a local grocery store,

to come in and make gingerbread cookies with us.

He was great with showing the children how to separate an egg,

introducing them to molasses,

and demonstrating how to roll out and cut the gingerbread boy and girl.

Into the oven the cookies went.

Mmm they started to smell good.

While the gingerbread cookies were baking our big buddies visited for story.

Ms Smith, their teacher, read the story of The Gingerbread Man.

Just as she finished the story James yelled from the kitchen,

"oh no, stop stop"

The gingerbread cookies had jumped out of the oven when

he was checking on them.

They ran out into the hallway crumbling a little as they went.

The buddies went out to investigate and saw the trail of crumbs.

They followed it all the way to the door heading outside.

There was note that the big buddies read to the little buddies.

Run, run as fast you can,

I'm off to see as much of the world as I can!

We were standing in the school foyer wondering what we were going to do.

Should we go outside and try to find them?

Maybe they were on the roof.

Then one of our big buddies suggested we make 'Wanted' posters

to put up so others might help.

They got to work creating posters.

Sharing ideas of how to describe the cookies and what should

be a reward.

Posters are made and ready to go up around the school.

Can you help?

Send us a post card from where you live or are traveling,

telling a little story of what the gingerbread cookie might see or do.

Mail it to:

Brooklyn StrongStart

1290 Guthrie Rd.,

Comox, British Columbia

V9M 4G2

We look forward to checking our mail box.