Gingerbread Baby Activities – Working on our gingerbread unit was so much fun! This makes the weather outside almost like winter. I mean, as much as possible with 85 degree weather every day #flweatherproblems. I like to use different versions of “The Gingerbread Man” to go through the standard CCSS RL 2.9, compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story by different authors or from different cultures. Studying different versions also works well for understanding the story structure and telling the fable. Overall a winner in my book!
I love pulling lots of books from our library for each unit we teach, and our butterflies unit is no different! I’ve collected a few of my own versions over the years, but you can check out all of my class favorites (and some new suggestions) here on Amazon!
Gingerbread Baby Activities
To begin our thematic unit on gingerbread, we will first read the classic story “The Gingerbread Man”. After reading the text, we used our interactive “Story Map” anchor chart to document the characters, setting, and actions in the beginning, middle, and end.
Gingerbread Man Thematic Unit — Kindergarten Kiosk
Through the telling, we helped each other tell the story and determine the central message of this VERY popular folk tale. We wrote that on the back. The kids came up with so many different themes! I was very excited to see that our hard work with the theme a few weeks ago really paid off! The students identified three main reasons:
)! It does a great job of telling a story through pictures. When we read this story, we focused mainly on the details in the paintings, especially the small side windows that are unique to Jan Brett.
Then we returned to our Interactive Anchor Chart and began mapping out this story. As we added our sticky notes to each section, we discussed how this narrative differed from the classic version we read the day before.
Finally, the time has come to compare these two stories. Together we had a super quick brainstorming session on the whiteboard…
Gingerbread Counting Mats
Students documented their findings on this sheet from my gingerbread unit, “You Can’t Catch Me!”. To check their answers, the children shared and discussed their answers with their shoulder partners.
The girls love this one, especially since the story doesn’t eat her up like most others!
We used a reenactment of “The Gingerbread Girls” to discuss adding the suffix -ing to verbs to change when the verb occurs. So, after reading the text, we found 12 different verbs to describe how the gingerbread men escaped.
There were only a few verbs that we wrote down. Then we added -ing to each word and discussed how the spelling sometimes changed and sometimes it didn’t. Then we wrote our verbs in this little notebook.
Gingerbread Activities For Preschool *free Printable*
The brooch came with the butterflies we made. The next day we created our own butterfly story with verbs. Students crossed off the verbs they used in writing. Their stories were so creative! I love the gingerbread story from Star Wars.
Another activity we did after reading different versions of “The Gingerbread Boy” was to discuss the author’s word choice. We discussed how often the authors used different versions of the word “run” to make the story more interesting. With this discussion, we will play a gingerbread word match game as a whole class. To play, we sat in a circle on the carpet. Each student received a card with words. As we went around the circle, students matched their word cards with stronger word choices. When we made a pair, they went to the middle. My kids love the hands-on approach to this vocabulary building exercise!
Then we used our newfound vocabulary skills to show off our brains! Students were challenged to demonstrate their new and improved stronger word choices. Then they had to decorate their “smart cookie” sheet with a foam butterfly that I found at a local craft store.
At this point we had read so many butterfly stories, the children noticed the repetition in each story so they tried to incorporate it into their own stories. We also used a popplet to tell our favorite story.
Mommy’s Little Helper: Gingerbread Activities For Preschoolers And Up
This was my second time with this app, so I was very specific about the project requirements. Some students even got a little creative and added photos. When we were done, we shared our story cubes with the class. I am sure we will use it again! (You can read how easy Popplet is to use here)
Next week we did even more Gingerbread Man activities! Click “READ MORE” to see MORE of our gingerbread fun from next week!
We also do a little butterfly sampling! I was *a little* pressed for time, so I found these gingerbread cookies at our local grocery store. No baking this year! 🙁
I’ve been looking for these for a while, so when I found them, I decided it would be best to pick something up for my entire team! Excuse the shoppers around me… I *might* have picked up #alltheboxes!* Each student received a gingerbread cookie for this fun graphing activity. Before trying our cookies, we answered a few questions about our cookies and recorded them on this chart sheet from my “Gingerbread” themed unit. After trying out our cookies, we collected some data and made a graph!
Amazon.com: 3d Gingerbread House Craft Kit
One of my favorite parts of the holidays was decorating a gingerbread house. In past years I’ve made butterfly cupcakes and let the kids decorate them, but this year I had to cut back a bit due to time (and the festivities!), so my secondies had the chance to make their own butterfly cards for someone make special.
To make these cards, I printed the house shape on light brown construction paper. Then he gave each student a page with decorations. I love how some students put all the decorations and others choose only certain aspects.
Inside, the students wrote a small message to someone special. This one came to me from one of my sweethearts! The love these children have for their teacher is incredible! <3! #allfeelings
With all the literature being thrown around, I wanted to balance it out with some non-fiction. So we learned more about the history of gingerbread by first watching this little video from The History Channel. To better understand the story, read this article. This item is now added to my gingerbread unit, so if you already have it, don’t forget to download it again!
Sunday Sharing What I’m Teaching In December!
After the students read the article in class, the students answered questions that depended on the text. This smart cookie decided this was the perfect way to assess reading comprehension! Ouch!
My 3rd LOVED this center last year! All video playback is through SafeShare, so there are no ads to worry about!
Kids literally just scan and go! I <3 simple centers! Nothing like a sweet little party to bring to you and your students during the holidays! Be sure to check out these other posts about our gingerbread units over the years!
Applicious Teacher is dedicated to creating practical and engaging lessons that meet standards while still having the time of your life. This is your place for ideas, tips and resources for REAL teachers!
Free Printable Gingerbread Man Connect The Dots Activity
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Christmas Handprint Craft Gingerbread Man Craft Toddler
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