Hansel and Gretel
Once upon a time their lived a woodcutter and his wife in the forest. The woodcutter was strong man with a big heart. His wife was self-centered and thought only of herself. They had two children named Hansel who was nine and Gretel who was eight. Hansel was brave and Gretel was smart. They always looked after each other and couldn’t be separated. The woodcutter loved his family and was very sad because a great famine had taken the land. When he told his wife that they would be out of food soon, the wife had an idea.
“We must get rid of the children,” she said. “We must take them so deep into the forest that they won’t be able to find their way back home.” She believed that by getting rid of the children they would have enough food for themselves. “We can’t do that!” cried the woodcutter. “We can and we must!” shouted the wife. It’s better that some of us survive than all of us die. The woodcutter tried to tell his wife that they couldn’t do such a thing, but she wouldn’t let him speak another word about it. She told him that the matter was settled and there wasn’t anything he could do about it. They would give them one loaf of bread and then they would have to take care of themselves.
The children could hear their parents talking from their bedroom and were scared. Gretel cried and said, “What will we do out there in the forest with no home and only a loaf of bread? I’m scared, Hansel” Hansel quickly replied, “Don’t worry Gretel. I have a plan. We’ll back in no time at all and dad will have us back.”
Vocabulary
woodcutter
self-centered
famine
look after
survive matter (be) settled
So, the next morning the wife took the children deep into the dark, dark forest and made a fire for them.
She gave them a loaf of bread to share for dinner and told them not to eat it until dinner because they wouldn’t get anymore. She told them to stay where they were while they were out chopping wood and they would come and get them when they were finished.
The sun went down, the moon came up and there was no sign of their parents. “She did it!” screamed Gretel. “She left us out here alone!” Hansel replied, “Don’t worry Gretel, I dropped trail of breadcrumbs for us to follow back home. Look!” Gretel saw the breadcrumbs. They followed the trail, but there was a bit of wind earlier that day and some of the breadcrumbs had been moved. They followed the trail to a house made of gingerbread and candy.
Gretel stood before the house; she couldn’t believe her eyes. Hansel immediately ran to the house and pulled off one of the gum drops lining the door and started eating it when suddenly the door opened and an elderly woman holding a cane stepped out of the house.
“My, my,” she said in a soft creaky voice. “There are two little children outside my house,” she chuckled 
with a creepy look in her eye. “Please come in my little dearies. You must be hungry.” Both Hansel and Gretel knew that something was weird, but they could smell the food coming from the house and they were starving. So, they both walked in.
Irregular Verb Tenses
Base Verb Past Tense
take
make
give
tell
leave
stand
say
can
Inside the house, Hansel and Gretel immediately saw a table filled with food, so they both ran to it and started eating all the cakes, cookies, pudding, and candy right away. As they were eating, they got a better look at the woman in the light and realized that she was an ugly old witch! But it was too late, they had already eaten the food from the table. Before they could run out of the house, they both fell 
asleep.
Morning came and Hansel woke up in a cage above a very large wood stove while Gretel woke up chained to the table. The witch told Gretel to make a fire. Gretel was scared, but she knew she had better listen to the witch. So, she thought for a moment about it and started making the fire. 
She knew that the witch was going to cook Hansel if she didn’t act quickly. When the witch asked if the fire was hot enough yet, Gretel asked the witch why she thought she would tell her the truth. If the fire was hot enough, she would cook her brother. The witch looked at Gretel angrily and said, “You will not get away with this. Your time will come, you just wait little dearie.” The witch opened the door to the oven and looked in just as Gretel pushed her into the oven and shut the door. Hansel and Gretel could hear the screams of the witch coming from the oven as she was cooked into a crispy roast.
Scared and happy Gretel let Hansel out of the cage and they both ran from the house. Suddenly, they could hear their father’s voice calling to them in the forest. They ran to him and he told 
them that their mother had died of food poisoning and took them back home.
They never talked about the witch or their mother again and lived happily ever after.
Put the story in order from 1 to 10. What happened first?
The witch wanted to eat Hansel and Gretel, so she poisoned them.
They found a gingerbread house.
Hansel and Gretel's father found them.
The mother wanted to leave the children in the forest, so she could survive.
Hansel and Gretel ran out of the gingerbread house.
Hansel left a trail of breadcrumbs.
There was a famine in the land.
Gretel pushed the witch into the wood stove.
Hansel and Gretel ate a lot of food in the house.
They lived happily ever after.
Word Search
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