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hansel & gretel

PRE-TELLING ACTIVITIES

 

Activity:

Healthy Food (situated on the left, that way we can work with laterality)

Bread, cereals, milk, vegetable, rice, meat, fish, fruit.

 

Unhealthy Food (situated on the right, that way we keep working the laterality)

Looly poops, candies, chips, cakes, cookies, chocolates, McDonalds’, hot dogs.

 

The healthy / Unhealthy food can also be played with a twister game.

 

Activity:

Family names that appear on the story, such as: mother, father, sister, brother.

 

 

 

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Using the game of a twister we can create a plane of the forest that the brothers cross in the tale. In this twister we can work with the different ways and directions: long, short, on the left, on the right, straight on, etc.

 

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We can work with opposites explaining the main characters of the tale, the witch and the brothers. For instance: old-young, fat-thin, blond-dark haired etc. With this activity the flashcard are a good resource.

 

Story resume

A poor woodcutter and his wife had two children named Hansel and Gretel. Their mother died when they were young. Hansel and Gretel were very sad. Soon their father remarried but their stepmother was very cruel. One day, she took the children deep into the forest and left them there. Clever Hansel had some breadcrumbs in his pocket and had dropped them on the way so that they could find their way back home. Alas! The birds ate all the crumbs and they couldn’t find the path that led back home.

Hansel and Gretel went deeper and deeper into the forest. They were hungry and tired. Finally, after walking for a long time, they saw a cottage made of chocolate, candies, and cake. “Look, Hansel! A chocolate brick!” shouted

Gretel in delight and both ate it hungrily.

Now, a wicked witch lived there. When she saw Hansel and Gretel, she wanted to eat them. She grabbed the chil­dren and locked them in a cage. The witch decided to make a soup out of Hansel and eat him first. She began boiling a huge pot of water for the soup. Just then, Gretel crept out of her cage. She gave the wicked witch a mighty push from behind and the witch fell into the boiling water. She howled in pain and died instantly. Hansel and Gretel found treasure lying around the cottage. They carried it home with them. Their stepmother had died and their father wel­comed them back with tears of joy. They never went hungry again!

 

Tip: We should adapt the story to the content we want to teach.

 

POST-TELLING ACTIVITIES

 

Activity: in order to work with opposites we may ask a battery of different questions:

  • Who was getting fat?

  • Hansel

  • Gretel

  • Who was the oldiest?

  • The witch

  • The kids

  • What kind of color was the brother’s hair?

  • Blond

  • Dark

  • Which student in this class is:

  • Blond hair

  • Dark hair

 

  • Which is the way that Hansel and Gretel choose for going back home?

(And here we can draw a small plane with names in English: forest, witch’s house, home etc.)

           Activity

We may play the chain game. The kids have to tell us the sweets that Hansel and Gretel were eating in the tale. For instance: the first kid says the name of a sweet (cookies) and the second one repeats the word that has been said: cookies and add a new one (cookies and chocolate)

Final Advice: DON’T TRUST STRANGE PEOPLE

 

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