How do you take an old favorite and incorporate all the common core standards that you need to cover in your class? Can you still do a read aloud and still be able to get what you need to get done for the curriculum? YES, you can and have fun doing it!
This is an old favorite fairy tale that has many different versions. This one is a book companion for The Gingerbread Man retold by Jim Aylesworth.
Synopsis: A little old man and a little old woman make a gingerbread step by step and they put it in the oven to bake. When they go to get him out the gingerbread man jumps out of the oven and runs away crying “ No, no I won’t come back I would rather run than be your snack!” He runs away from a butcher, cow and a sow until he is tricked by a fox.
Read alouds offer opportunities to teach foundation skills including vocabulary, story grammar, comprehension strategies and fluent reading.“
“The single most important activity for building knowledge for their eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children,” stressed Becoming a Nation of Readers, a 1985 report by the Commission on Reading.
Common Core Standards: I am highlighting the kindergarten standards but there are similar ones for first grade and second grade.
Kindergarten:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.1: With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.3 Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.2 Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.
Throughout the story make sure that you are interacting with the students not just reading it page by page. In my book companion, I have a page by page questions and comments that assist the children in understanding the story. For example, on the first page of the narrative, it begins ” Once upon a time” this is a clue that it is a fairy tale. What are some of the other stories that we read that began “Once upon a time”. In the book companion, I have fairy tale wands that I have them hold up each time they hear a clue that that tells us that it is a fairy tale. This helps to evoke questions about fairy tales as well as gives information that the students will need for comprehension.
The lotto game can be used as a comprehension check, it includes questions about story elements and vocabulary. It aids in developing listening skills
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.2 With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.3 With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.
Included in the book companion is two different retell rubrics as well as picture supports for the story elements. For some of the students. the picture supports can help with memory skills
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.4 Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.
Throughout the text talk about the vocabulary that you encounter. In this companion, there are tier two vocabulary words identified with picture supports and student definitions as well as ways that it used beyond the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.6 Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly
There are two big topics in this book companion. Fairytales is a before reading activity. The writing prompt is an after reading activity which could also be used a discussion topic as the children explain how they would convince the gingerbread man to stay.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.5 Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.
The story paper has a place for a picture and then a place for the child to write their story.
How do I get a copy of The Gingerbread Book Companion?
Thanks for your interest. I put two links on the bottom of the post. One of them is a free sample, the lotto game and the other is the full product on TPT.https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Gingerbread-Man-book-Companion-retold-by-Aylesworth-3145283 Full product https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREEBIE-Lotto-Game-for-The-Gingerbread-Man-by-Jim-Aylesworth-3148220 Free Sample Lotto Game.