To kick-off the comprehensive literary Fairy Tale unit, all first grade classes at Glen Head Elementary participated in the annual Gingerbread Study. For weeks the students read numerous books with the Gingerbread theme, wrote their own independent stories about being a “Gingerbread boy” or Gingerbread girl”, and even researched how to make different Gingerbread houses using different foods including delicious candy, cookies, ice cream cones, sprinkles, licorice, cereal, jellybeans, and chocolates just to name a few!
To culminate the study, parents and family members from each of the first grade classes were invited to build their own Gingerbread houses. The steps included: gluing the houses to boards using frosting; making houses using milk cartons, 6 square graham crackers and 2 triangle graham crackers; decorating houses with candy; creating a scene with gingerbread men and snowmen made of marshmallows; and lastly adding trees made out of ice cream cones with green frosting and sprinkles!
When their Gingerbread houses were complete with candy landscapes and delicious snowmen - each child got to wrap them up like a beautiful present and take them home to share with their respective families to enjoy!
We look forward to the complete the Fairy Tale Study as part of the English curriculum including the fabulous Fairly Tale Ball!
Article and photos by Shelly Newman
