January, Jan Brett, Gingerbread!

January has been a busy month so far, as we explore Jan Brett’s books, gingerbread stories, kittens and mittens! Check out her great website at www.janbrett.com.

Have you heard about our gingerbread adventures? The children started off by examing a gingerbread cookie. We smelled them, looked at them touched them. Then… we each took ONE bite! Then we made a graph, “Which part did you bite first?” Most people bit the head first, then the arms, then the legs. We had to create a new category for our “helping dad,” since he ate his cookie in one bite!

We’ve read five version of the gingerbread story, with more to come! With our gingerbread stories, we can compare and contrast the characters and the events. In some, the cookie gets eaten, but that’s because what do we do with cookies? We eat them!

Why did the gingerbread cookie jump on the fox’s back? We found out when we put a cookie in water! In cold water, it didnt’ change much, but in warm water it dissolved! We also experimented with melting snow, sugar, paint and even crayons!

There’s a new “gingerbread town” on our bulletin board! Open a door to a house and look inside!

There’s so much to do this month, and everything leads to such great
discussions! For example, mittens. A simple word, an everyday object.

The children have had such fun acting out The Three Little Kittens, and losing and finding their mittens! Being the Mother Cat is very popular… they love admonishing their “kittens,” “What? Lost your mittens? You naughty kittens, then you shall have no pie!” In Jan Brett’s The Mitten, many animals squeeze inside a boy’s mitten! We matched, sorted, talked about same and different. We act that story out too, but we hide under a parachute!

We can have a pair of mittens. A pair of shoes. A pair of socks.
We can have a pair of pears! But wait! We can pare a pear! We can even pare a pair of pears!

We’ve been going out and playing in the snow; the children are getting so self-sufficient putting on their own snowpants, boots, hats and gloves! It’s a great month!