Second graders finished up a unit this week on Hansel & Gretel. The goal was to get students to compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (Common Core Standard - RL2.9). Students also shared their opinions on their favorite version and gave reasons to support their answer. Our final activity was a Hansel & Gretel reader's theater where students rewrote a fractured fairy tale version of the story. We read the following books in class:
Hansel & Gretel by Cynthia Rylant
Hansel & Gretel by James Marshall
Hansel & Gretel by Rika Lesser
Hansel & Gretel in Fairy Tale Comics by Gilbert Hernandez
The Gilbert Hernandez comic version of Hansel & Gretel was by far the favorite. Students preferred the comic-style illustrations to all of the others. They also liked that the stepmother did not die at the end but had to do whatever Hansel & Gretel told her too as punishment. Their second favorite was the Rika Lesser version illustrated by Paul Zelinsky. They liked this for the "old-fashioned" illustrations.
Some students had extra time and were able to make reader's theater hats to go along with the performance (see below). I purchased a new handy dandy iPhone mic and recorded our reader's theater versions. I was surprised that you could actually hear the students as past recordings without the mic were terrible. See our fractured Hansel & Gretel titles and listen to one of our versions below.
Hansel & Gretel Fractured Titles:
Hansel and Gretel in Space by Mrs. Silveira's class
Hansel and Gretel in the City by Mrs. Macnie's class
Hansel and Gretel at the Beach by Mrs. Paiva's class
Hansel and Gretel in the Jungle by Miss Rendine's class
Hansel & Gretel by Cynthia Rylant
Hansel & Gretel by James Marshall
Hansel & Gretel by Rika Lesser
Hansel & Gretel in Fairy Tale Comics by Gilbert Hernandez
The Gilbert Hernandez comic version of Hansel & Gretel was by far the favorite. Students preferred the comic-style illustrations to all of the others. They also liked that the stepmother did not die at the end but had to do whatever Hansel & Gretel told her too as punishment. Their second favorite was the Rika Lesser version illustrated by Paul Zelinsky. They liked this for the "old-fashioned" illustrations.
Some students had extra time and were able to make reader's theater hats to go along with the performance (see below). I purchased a new handy dandy iPhone mic and recorded our reader's theater versions. I was surprised that you could actually hear the students as past recordings without the mic were terrible. See our fractured Hansel & Gretel titles and listen to one of our versions below.
Hansel & Gretel Fractured Titles:
Hansel and Gretel in Space by Mrs. Silveira's class
Hansel and Gretel in the City by Mrs. Macnie's class
Hansel and Gretel at the Beach by Mrs. Paiva's class
Hansel and Gretel in the Jungle by Miss Rendine's class