Trickery at its Best
Colton Glover
"Run, run, as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I’m
the gingerbread man!" The Gingerbread Man is a traditional
fable that children of all ages enjoy. It has an exciting and surprising
storyline that makes it extremely easy for children to follow. Its simple
rhythm and repetition immediately catches the attention of children. The short
dialogue and clear images lead the children to discover a shocking ending.
Another great aspect of this book is that it moves quickly into the climax of
the story and then to the ending. Books that are short and to the point are
going to be more interesting to any student at any age.
The
gingerbread man hops out of the oven and immediately begins using the motif of
trickery by challenging everyone he encounters to catch him if they can. He
passes a gardener, mowers, a cow getting water from a well, and two picnicking
bears. They all try to chase him, but no one can get close enough to catch him.
The gingerbread man finally approaches a river and asks the fox to try to catch
him, but the fox responds differently than all of the others. The fox then uses
trickery to convince the gingerbread man to ride on his back across the river
so the others won’t catch him. The fox claims that the water is getting deeper
and deeper until the gingerbread man moves right on top of his nose. Without
hesitation, the fox snaps his jaws eating the gingerbread man in one bite. The
gingerbread man thought he was doing a good job at tricking the others, but he
didn't realize that they fox was tricking him into becoming a snack.
I remember reading Gingerbread Man in kindergarten. Yes, this book would be perfect when teaching children.It will show the students that it has elements such as rhythm and repetition. I like how you explained that trickery is present in the story because it does shows that when he tries to get the others to catch him. I think this would be a great book to use in the classroom. The teacher could also have the students to do an gingerbread activity. The students could make gingerbread cookies or houses. Lou
ReplyDeleteThe use of repetition in the story helps make it a predictable read for young children. Even though the story is easy to follow the ending is surprising. Many children reading the book would expect the ending to remain predictable and therefore end with the gingerbread man's classic chant. The surprise ending would lead to laughter from many young students. Thanks for using this story for the blog.
ReplyDeleteI love this story! Like you said it is definitely more interesting and fun to read because it is short and to the point. You pointed out some great characteristics that makes this story traditional literature. This is a great read for the classroom and I like Lou's idea about making cookies to go along with lesson.
ReplyDeleteI like your blog post. I too, remember reading this as a really young child. My favorite part of your post was this line. "The gingerbread man hops out of the oven and immediately begins using the motif of trickery by challenging everyone he encounters to catch him if they can." This is some of the best use of imagery and personifcation I have seen. I can feel myself opening the oven door and leaning over to get the cookies out and the gingerbread man jumping out and running away. You gave the cookie even more human like characteristics than the author of the story did. Great job!!
ReplyDeleteIt's been so long since I've read this story! It is interesting to note that not just one character uses trickery, but the tricker is tricked! The title of the post has you wondering who was the better tricker, because the first character may not be the correct guess. Thought-provoking as it should be. This is something that adults may think about as well, allowing several age groups to enjoy this story. Esther
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ReplyDeleteWhen I read the first line of the blog I thought to myself "You can't catch me, you can't catch me!" This story would be a great book to read in class around Christmas time. The students could write a brief journal entry describing how they would out smart the fox if they were the gingerbread man/ woman. It is a shame that the gingerbread man did not make it across the river, but it teaches a lesson at the same time. Do not play with others emotions/feelings because it is only a matter of time before the trick is on you. This is also a good moral or rule to teach students.
ReplyDeleteVery cute piece of traditional literature that I had totally forgotten about. It definetly shows trickery as one of the motifs. It would be a great piece to share with elementary students.
ReplyDeleteAshley
I also remember reading this book when I was in Kindergarten and we had a "hunt" for the ginger bread man around our classroom and the library. He ended up being in the oven for us to eat after we searched for about twenty minutes for him! This is a good example of traditional literature because of the motifs it has. A fox in any story is known to be the "sly" or "tricky" one such as in the story "Robinhood". This would be a good book to read to small children so they can see the reptition and rhyme schemes throughout the story. -Mary-Ann
ReplyDeleteI had completely forgotten about this story! This tale would be a great example to use when teaching children the element of trickery in traditional literature.
ReplyDeleteNicole
This story is a wonderful example of traditional literature. It can definatley help introduce the idea of trickery to children. It does have its own catch phrase as you stated and it has a rhythm within it which will help keep the children entertained. It is very important to keep children enteratined while learning so they will be motivated to keep learning. This would be an excellent addition to the classroom.
ReplyDelete-Jordan
The gingerbread man is probably one of the cutest stories I've ever read for some reason. I couldn't agree anymore that trickery does best describe this piece of literature! Excellent blog and summary
ReplyDelete-rachel
The Gingerbread Man is a great story that can be used in the classroom. Just about everyone remembers a time they heard story, and did an activity or got a gift since the story was read to me around the holidays. I remember my kindergarten teacher reading the story to my class and we got to make our on gingerbread men after she finished.
ReplyDeletePhillip
Great example of trickery! I did not hear this story that often growing up but it is a great story to show an example of trickery in traditional literature to young children.
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ReplyDeleteWhenever I think of the ginger bread man I can't help but think about the ginger bread man from Shrek. A good thing about the story that was mentioned was that it was short and got to the point. That is important, because it’s hard to keep students attention for a long time.-Kayla
ReplyDeleteThis is a very cute story!! I almost forgot about it. This story is a perfect example of traditional literature. It uses personification because it gives life to a nonliving thing.
ReplyDelete-Olivia
This is such a great story and brings up some good childhood memories for me. It has many motifs in it that make it great traditional literature such as personifiction, the gingerbread man being human, and trickery, him tricking people into not eating him. -CJ
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