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Gingerbread Written and Illustrated by Joanna Z Forbes Social Emotional Discussion by Heather T Forbes LCSW

Written and Illustrated by Joanna Z Forbes Social Emotional Discussion by Heather T Forbes LCSW Beyond Consequences Institute LLC BOULDER COLORADO

Copyright 2017 by Beyond Consequences Institute LLC All rights reserved No portion of this manual may be reproduced distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher Published by Beyond Consequences Institute LLC www BeyondConsequences com ISBN 978 0 9978501 8 5 Layout Typography Mimi Emeline Emeline Design www emelinedesign com

Acknowledgments I owe my thanks to several people for their involvement in the many stages of creating this book First a thank you to Jack Thompson for helping me write a sparkling acknowledgments with lots of extra wording Thank you to Jean LaDue for accepting me into the Art Work Space studio Thank you to my mother Heather Forbes for guiding me through the making of this book and for writing the social emotional discussion at the end Thank you to Mimi Emeline who has a unique eye for design and structure and perfectionism Thank you Jody Berman for maintaining a keen eye in the editing of this book I also send my thanks to my teachers at Rocky Mountain College of Art Design who provided me with the topic of creating a children s book And finally I send my thanks to everyone else who has pushed me into the person I am now

Dedication I dedicate this book to Zhanna She will always be a part of me because I will never forget where she came from

Once upon a time there was a little old woman The little old woman thought I should make a girl out of gingerbread She rolled out the dough cut out the shape and put gumdrops for eyes Skittles for teeth white icing for hair and a beautiful bow made out of licorice 2

Then she put the gingerbread girl in the oven It smelled great so she opened up the door to take a peek and out jumped the gingerbread girl 3

Stop Stop little gingerbread girl said the little old woman I want to eat you 4

No said the little gingerbread girl I can run away from you 5

Run run fast as you can Can t catch me I m running to Gingerbread Land And away she ran 6

She ran until she got outside where she saw the little old man The little old man said Stop Stop little gingerbread girl I want to eat you The little gingerbread girl said NO I ran away from the little old woman and I can run away from you too 7

Run run fast as you can Can t catch me I m running to Gingerbread Land And away she ran 8

Social Emotional Discussion to The Gingerbread Girl Please note Each page with a candy cane correlates to one of the questions in the following discussion 37

Social Emotional Discussion to The Gingerbread Girl Children are emotional beings They are born into this world with their senses in high gear with no ability to express their emotional responses to how their sensory systems respond or react other than by their behavioral reactions Their behaviors are the result of what they feel based on what emotions they experience For instance when a baby is startled by a stimulus such as a loud noise the baby hears the loud noise has an emotional response of being scared and then begins to cry The baby doesn t have the ability to say to his her parent Mom Dad that noise scares me Instead the baby simply begins to cry The behavior of crying is a manifestation of the feeling of being scared In other words the behavior is the communication The following table demonstrates some typical events that can happen in the life of a child Follow the chain of events leading to the outcome expressed as a behavioral reaction EVENTS IN A CHILD S LIFE AND THE CHAIN OF EVENTS THAT ENSUE STIMULUS PROCESSING OF STIMULUS EMOTIONAL RESPONSE BEHAVIORAL RESPONSE Loud noise Child hears loud noise Scared Child begins to cry Bump to the head Child experiences jolt to the nervous system Pain Child begins to cry Mom says no to child s request Child hears only the word no Angry and powerless Child erupts into a tantrum Child is given apple juice instead of grape juice Child tastes the apple juice realizes it isn t grape juice Mad Child throws the apple juice Grandma leaves Child sees Grandma leave Sad Child runs to his room and slams the door 39

Exploring Feelings Illustrated in The Gingerbread Girl As the adults in care of children we have typically only paid attention to the last step of this chain of events we have only looked at the behavioral reaction of children In blindly doing so we have then interpreted this last step in numerous negative ways seeing children as being disrespectful noncompliant disobedient obstinate bad whiny and the list goes on However when looking at the entire chain of events it becomes apparent that the behavioral reaction was simply an expression of the emotional response felt by the child Following this logic it then becomes clear that if we can help children learn to verbally express their emotional responses in appropriate ways we can help children avoid expressing themselves in negative behavioral ways Behavioral reactions are simply a communication of how children are feeling Children need the adults in their lives to help them learn how to identify and express their feelings in verbally appropriate ways When children can express themselves verbally it decreases their need to act out in negative ways In this story of the gingerbread girl there are an assortment of feelings that each character experiences Each character s expressions are illustrated in a way to help children identify how these characters are feeling as the gingerbread girl makes her way to safety in Gingerbread Land The story was written to help children identify how different experiences and situations in life evoke different feelings along with an array of different emotional responses After reading this story go through each of the following questions with your child Refer back to each page referenced signified with a white corner and a candy cane above the referenced page number and review what happened in that moment of the story Look closely at the character s facial expression and the posturing of his her body Use the questions to engage in emotionally enriched discussions with the goal being to help your child ultimately learn how to identify his her own feelings to become more emotionally attuned and emotionally aware Old Woman Page 6 1 From the expression on the old woman s face how is she feeling A Happy B Sad C Worried D Mad 40

2 Why would the old woman be worried 3 On this same page look at the expression on the gingerbread girl s face How is she feeling A Happy B Sad C Worried D Mad 4 Why is the gingerbread girl happy in this scene Old Man Page 7 1 What is the old man s reaction to seeing the gingerbread girl cross his path A Mad B Surprised C Scared D Grateful 2 Why is the old man surprised 3 T he gingerbread girl says to the old man I ran away from the little old woman and I can run away from you too What do these words along with her facial expression reveal about how she is feeling A Mad B Scared C Confident D Grateful 41

Draw a surprised face 55

Draw an eager face 57

16 95 Beyond Consequences Institute www beyondconsequences com www joannaforbes com