In music class at our school, Miss Jennifer told me she likes to incorporate a German-Octoberfest theme. She plays polka music for her students. I thought it would be fun to do the same in the library! What better story than Grimm’s classic of Hansel and Gretel? (This James Marshall version makes it fun and a little lighter).
We had our own white pebbles in the library (well – maybe more like stones…)
Here is our “trail of white pebbles”:
We dropped some breadcrumbs too:
What would it be like to find a house like this? Would you eat some of it? I certainly would.
The witch wants to know if Hansel is plump enough to eat. She does not have good eyesight, so Hansel sticks out a chicken bone.
Instead of a chicken bone, we used a stick. I asked the children to pretend they were the witch. They had to close their eyes and decide if it was too thin or just right (to eat!).
We all agreed, just like Gretel, we would have given her a TREMENDOUS shove too!
We like happy endings, and are glad the mean stepmother is gone!
On the projector (a little polka):
Some fun Polka music:
You know how important I think “playing” with our stories is. I made this “witch house”, so the children can retell the story in the next few weeks. I will leave out pebbles, breadcrumbs and sticks too.
My afternoon classes started off with some polka!
The children always enjoy looking at the pictures of other versions of our story.
We made some yummy witch houses.
We went outside and dropped and followed our breadcrumb trails.
And finally retold the whole story with our house.
Another Berto and Beatrix approved book.
Find more ideas to go with this story here: