Storytelling in gingerbread
We’re playing with with the traditional story of ‘The Gingerbread Man’!
This session, we are using our imaginations to craft our own version of the classic tale, by changing the gingerbread character’s shape, identity, appearance as well as creating new characters that interact with it!
It’s a wonderful way to express our imagination and build our own stories, using descriptive language (colors, size, appearance) along with some of our favourite high frequency verbs (often referred to as the super 7 or sweet 16**):
es - is
vive (en) - lives in
quiere - wants
hace - makes
tiene - has
(se) pone - puts (on)
corre - runs
salta - jumps
dice - says
**Teacher aside: Prioritizing these high frequency verbs in my storytelling changed everything for me and my students! I’m so thankful to the linguistic wizards Terry Waltz and Mike Peto for these fabulous concepts! :-)
Questions we’re asking:
¿Cómo es? What does he/she/it/they look like?
¿Cómo se mueva? How does he/she/it/they move?
¿Qué se pone? What does he/she/it/they put on?
¿Quién lo hace? Who makes he/she/it/they?
¿Dónde vive? Where does he/she/it/they live?
¿Qué pasa? What happens?
Singing, dancing and playing with the language…
We’re playing with the phrase “¡no me atraparás!” (you can’t catch me!) using a variation of our song ‘Alrededor del círculo’, by Music with Sara - find it on our song playlist, too!
We’re making our own puppets, and making our own cookies at home, in the shape of our main character!
We play with the masa (dough), and watch others make masa
We play the circle game: ¿Quién tomo la galleta? Who took the cookie?
We use hand play with our dough-making songs:
Soy panadero (I’m a baker)
Older kids may enjoy a hand clapping activity!
Todo el dia el panadeo amasa el pan
Cultural comparisons:
We’re exploring other tasty, seasonal treats from around the Spanish speaking world that carry their own traditional stories.
El roscón de reyes enjoyed on the 5th of January on ‘Three Kings Day’
El roscón de San Valero is prepared on a gigantic scale for all of the town of Zaragoza, Spain to enjoy every 29th of January, as part of their St Valero celebrations
Holiday cookies from around the Spanish speaking world: https://www.spanish.academy/blog/a-spanish-guide-to-holiday-cookies/
All about the origin of gingerbread ‘people’: https://elgourmet.com/galletas-de-jengibre-conoces-el-origen-de-esta-dulce-tradicion
The mysterious origin of the famous sugary, doughnut-like churros: https://www.cucinare.tv/2021/05/21/churros-el-origen-misterioso-de-una-tradicion-clave-de-la-cocina-criolla/
What traditional treats do you make at home with your family and friends?
Why not enjoy your own gingerbread treat with our ‘chocolate’ unit?