Hansel and Gretel

Our mats arrived in a very big box and of course we wanted to turn the box into something fun. We decided to have the children recreate the setting of the Story Hansel and Gretel.

We started by reading part of the story. We stopped when the children were left in the woods for the second time, and the birds ate the bread crumbs. We asked the children to make a prediction on what would happen next. Here are the children predictions:

Mahmoud: "Mom will be angry because kids came back and were hungry."
Ava: "They will come to a candy house."
Rachel: "They will get lost. They will not be able to find a way back to their house."
Roberto: "Hansel and Gretel will be lost...they will not be able to find their way back home."
Steven: "Birds will eat the bread crumbs. Children will not be able to their way back home."
Clara: "The birds ate the crumbs. Children were lost in the woods."
Krishna: "Children will go to the witch's home."
Anthony: "Children will not find way home because birds will eat the crumbs."
Joanna-Lee: "Parents will be back to pick up children."
Giuliana: "Children will find their way home."
Colin: "Mom is going to get lost too."
Alessio: "Children will find their way home."
Kaitlyn: "Children will get lost. They will not be able to find their way back home."
Preston: "Birds ate the crumbs. Children will be lost."
Ivy: "Children will sleep."

We finished reading the story.  We talked about the story being real of not real (fictitious). The children said it was not real. Here are their reasons.

Giuliana: Witches do not exist.

Preston: House made of candies does not exist.

When asked if the story reminded them of another story, they responded:

"The Three Little Pigs" because in the story the wolf tried to eat the little pigs. In Hansel and Gretel the Old Lady (witch) tries to eat the children.  Furthermore, the wolf burned his tail and ran all the way home, and in Hansel and Gretel the Old Lady was pushed in the oven, burned herself and ran away (we changed the ending to make it more appropriate to the children's age). Ava mentioned that it reminded her of "The Old Lady that Swallowed a Fly". Joanna-Lee said that in both stories there was an Old Lady. Roberto found that it reminded him of the story "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" because Goldilocks was trying to find something to eat.

The next day, we had the children creating the setting (where is the story happening?) of the story. The children said that they needed a candy house, a hen house where the children were kept prisoner, and trees because the story happened in the forest.  Here is the setting created by the children with the help of our co-op student, Beth.

Noah is gluing candies on the house

Steven is adding trees

The hen house