Catch That Cookie
by Hallie Durand; Illustrated by David Small
Dial (August 14, 2014)
Audience: Ages 4 to 7
IndieBound * WorldCat
Fiction * Gingerbread Men * School
Description from GoodReads:
Marshall knows one thing for sure, despite what all the stories say: Gingerbread men cannot run. Cookies are for eating, and he can't wait to eat his after spending all morning baking them with his class. But when it's time to take the gingerbread men out of the oven . . . they're gone! Now, to find those rogue cookies, Marshall and his class have to solve a series of rhyming clues. And Marshall just might have to rethink his stance on magic. Catch That Cookie! is an imaginative mystery, deliciously illustrated by Caldecott Medal winner David Small. It's sure to inspire a new classroom tradition . . . and maybe even a few new believers!
Book in Action:
Recently, I was trying to figure out what to do for my post on CATCH THAT COOKIE by Hallie Durand and illustrated by David Small. I wanted to do something different than a typical review. A few days later, I was having dinner with a close teacher friend of mine. I have supported her classroom with literacy endeavors before and when she mentioned that she was doing a unit on The Gingerbread Man, it came to me. I could come in and read CATCH THAT COOKIE and have some fun with her kindergarteners.
I knew I wanted to make cookies and despite a weekend that seemed to disappear, I made a batch of "gingerbread" cookies minus the molasses.
The dough smelled yummy, and they certainly made the house smell wonderful.
I didn't decorate them since I wanted to do a taste test with the students using the cookies I made without molasses against store bought gingerbread cookies made with molasses.
We also set up to try out a puffy paint recipe. It was an interesting experiment.
The morning lesson began with a reading of CATCH THAT COOKIE. The students loved the book and enjoyed thinking about running around their school to find G-Men (short for gingerbread men in case you didn't catch that).
After the story, we divided into two groups. One group started by painting gingerbread men and decorating them.
These three missed recess since they refused to leave their painting and decorating until they finished.
Well, maybe they were not so puffy but they were very well decorated.
The second group had a chance first to explore the spices that go into gingerbread cookies - allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and even molasses. I had brought in the whole spices and the ground spices, and fresh ginger root. We also looked at images of the real plants that each spice comes from. It was funny watching their faces as they checked out how each spice smells.
After the spice exploration, we tasted cookies - those with and without molasses. With group one, my cookies failed miserably. With group two, the vote was a bit closer.
Oh well, maybe I'll play with that cookie recipe.
Though we had to wait for our gingerbread men to dry, the classroom teacher followed up by having the kids write about gingerbread men.
Yesterday, I stopped by the classroom to drop something off. As I stepped into the room, 21 little friends were trying to tell me all at the same time about how they actually got to chase the gingerbread man around the school that morning. They said it was magic, but I think they are magical.
Pick up a copy of CATCH THAT COOKIE at your local indie bookstore or neighborhood library and don't forget to keep an eye on those pesky G-men.
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