This week we have been reading, retelling, performing, watching… and making The Gingerbread Man!
From several versions of the traditional tale, we have been reading The Gingerbread Man in story time and within our daily independent reading and relaxion time. From the page to the garden, our favourite stories are always transformed from words and illustrations to role play and performance and this story was and is no exception; with adaptations made to the original version there was a range of cunning animals ready to gulp the unfortunate gingerbread at the end…from greedy dinosaurs to hungry children, ready to trick the ginger treat into hopping onto their noses!
As always, we love to be in the kitchen and creating delicious food. Thursday was ginger bread treat time! We discuss healthy foods daily; the importance of eating rainbow fruit and vegetables to keep our bodies and minds strong and growing….but we also discuss the importance of coming together and having a treat once in a while…
6 cups of flour; carefully counted.
2 cups of sand?….not sand, brown sugar!
A big chunk of butter!
2 tea spoons of ginger.
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 egg.
The ingredients were counted out, sniffed, crumbled and generally explored using all the senses. The ingredients were finally combined in a bowl. Our baking is hands on for the children and never a “demonstration”, with every child handling a different ingredient and taking on a specific task and responsibility. The bowl is passed around the circle. Spills and splashes are all part of the process as the children learn to fulfil their responsibly through listening to instructions, taking care with our actions and ensuring we pass the bowl on to the next child, who is patiently waiting their turn;
“Hold the bowl with one hand, stir with the other, 1,2,3…Pass it on!”
In other news our two surviving pumpkins have been harvested. After a dry summer holidays we have been lucky to add pumpkin to our tomato, chilli and potato harvests. Next week, pumpkin spaghetti!
