Objective: Phonological Awareness- beginning sounds

Materials:  Pictures of characters and items from the story of The Gingerbread Man (click on printables below), cardstock, laminating film, magnetic tape, scissors, cookie sheet, magnetic letters

Instructions:  Print pictures of the characters and items from the Gingerbread Man story on cardstock and laminate.  Next, cut the pictures out and place a small piece of magnetic tape on the back of each card.  Give each child in your small group a cookie sheet.  Students will  identify the picture, place it on the cookie sheet, and then place the magnetic letter next to it that starts with the beginning sound of the item pictured.

Objective: re-telling, sequencing, comprehension

Materials:  gingerbread man sequence sheet, scissors, crayons, glue sticks, brown construction paper.

Instructions:  Fairy tales are perfect stories for teaching the story sequence of beginning, middle, and end.  For four year-olds I find it is best to stick with only three part sequences, any more than that and it becomes a real problem for them.   The sequence that works best for this story is: 1) old lady baking cookies, 2) gingerbread man running away, and 3) fox eating gingerbread man.  Have the children color, cut, then glue the pictures in order of how they occurred in the story onto a brown strip of construction paper.   These are good assessments to keep in a portfolio to show understanding of sequence and ability to follow oral directions. 

Objective: comparing and contrasting stories, text-to-text connections

Materials: large sheet of butcher paper,  markers, Xerox copies of cover of each book read, glue stick, scissors. 

*this is a crossover activity because it incorporates math and literacy*

Instructions: Each day read a different version of the gingerbread story to your class.  Explain to the children that each book you read will be slightly different and their job is to notice those differences with their eyes and ears.  Xerox the front cover of each book that you read  and shrink it down to fit on the top of the graph.  Cut each copy out and glue at the top of the graph.  On the final day of your gingerbread unit ask each child to come to the graph and write their name under their favorite gingerbread story.  (HINT: make sure your graph is long enough to accommodate all the signatures under the Gingerbread Baby because this is always everybody's favorite hands down!).  Make sure to spend time reviewing the number of students who liked each story during math time.  Discuss which story had "more than" and which story had "fewer than" votes. 

Objective: re-telling, comprehension, sequencing, developing oral language

Materials:  Re-telling masks

Instructions:  Assign students roles as characters and give them the masks.  You can act as narrator the first time to model for the students.  Demonstrate how to narrate and guide the students as they act out the story the first time.  Give instructions to the audience, explain how they need to sit, pay attention, be quiet, and how they should clap at the very end.  After the demonstration is over select different students to be the characters in the story, also select a narrator.  After you have acted out the story a few times with the class put the masks in your dramatic play center and allow your students to choose it during center time.  

Objective: re-telling, comprehension, sequencing, developing oral language

Materials:  Gingerbread house, plush gingerbread man, fox, horse, people, and bear Beanie Babies.

Instructions:  Place plush characters from the story and a gingerbread house in a quiet area of the classroom.  Students may choose to re-tell the story of The Gingerbread Man during center time using the plush characters and gingerbread house.  The house pictured at left was a cookie tin purchased from Target many years ago. You could also decorate a shoe box to use as a gingerbread house.  When not in use the plush characters can be stored in the box.  Students LOVE this activity!

Setting: Small Group, Literacy Centers

Objective: Phonological Awareness- syllabication

Materials: pictures of characters and items from the story of The Gingerbread Man (click on printables below), cardstock, laminating film, magnetic tape, scissors, cookie sheet, round magnets.

Directions:  Print pictures of the characters from the Gingerbread Man story on cardstock and laminate.  Next, cut the pictures out and place a small piece of magnetic tape on the back of each card.  Give each child in your small group a cookie sheet.  Students will place a card on the cookie sheet and place the correct number of colored magnets underneath each picture to indicate how many syllables.  For example; if a child places a picture of the fox on his cookie sheet he would place one magnetic dot underneath the picture to indicate that the word "fox" has only one syllable. 

Setting: Small or Large Group, Literacy Centers

Objective: Alphabet Recognition

Materials: CTP Gingerbread People Cut-Outs, Sharpie marker, plastic container or basket to put cut-outs in

Directions:  This game is a modified version of the Bang Game.  Write one letter of the alphabet on each gingerbread person using the Sharpie marker.  On the 27th gingerbread person write the words "Run, run, as fast as you can!" with the Sharpie marker.  Place all the gingerbread people in a basket or plastic tub.  This game can be played in large or small groups.  Have the students sit in a circle and pass the basket of gingerbread people around.  Each student closes his eyes and removes one gingerbread person, then "reads" the letter written on the back aloud.  If the student can read the letter he keeps the cut-out.  If not, then he may ask a friend to help him read the letter.  If a student gets the gingerbread person that says "Run, run.." all the students can chime in and say the chant out loud together.  After the gingerbread person with "Run, run..." is chosen the person who selected it must put all of his gingerbread people back in the basket. 

Setting: Small Group, Math Centers

Objective: 1:1 correspondence, number sense

Materials: one ice cube tray per student, foam die, gingerbread man erasers (from Oriental Trading)

Directions:  Give each student in the small group an ice cube tray.  Place the gingerbread man erasers in the center of the table in a bowl or other container so they are easily accessible to all students.  Each student takes a turn rolling the die and putting the corresponding number of gingerbread men in their ice cube tray.

Setting: Small Group, Math Centers

Objective: 1:1, Number Sense

Materials:  1-5 counting grid, Gingerbread erasers (Oriental Trading)

Directions: Give each student a 1-5 counting grid.  Place the gingerbread man erasers in the center of the table in a bowl or other container so they are easily accessible to all students.  Have students place the appropriate number of gingerbread men in the grid next to each number.  This is much more difficult than it looks!

Setting: Small Group, Math Centers

Objective:  number sense, number recognition

Materials: 1-5 roll 'n stamp game sheet, Do-A-Dot markers or gingerbread stamp, foam die

Directions:  Give each student in the small group a 1-5 stamping sheet.  Have students take turns rolling the die.  The students will identify the correct number of dots on the die and stamp the corresponding number on their sheet. 

Setting: Small Group, Math Centers

Objective: patterning

*This is a crossover activity because it incorporates fine motor skills*

Materials: pattern strips, Gingerbread foam stickers (from Dollar Tree)

Directions: Give each student in your small group a pattern strip.  Place the foam stickers in the center of the table in a bowl or other container so they are easily accessible to all students.  Students will make a pattern on their strip using the foam stickers.  Peeling off the backs of the stickers promotes fine motor development.

Setting: Small Group, Math Centers

Objective: 1:1, number sense

Materials: cardstock, Gingerbread stickers or clipart, round sticker dots, playing pieces (plastic finger puppets make great playing pieces), tape, foam die.

Directions:  Take two pieces of white cardstock and tape them together in the middle to create your game board.  Be careful to leave a small gap between the two pieces so the game board will fold easily for storage.  Take thematic stickers and place them around the board for decoration.  The board featured here depicts the gingerbread baby running toward his house. Affix the round sticky dots to the game board and laminate.  Give each player a playing piece.  Players take turns rolling the die and moving their playing piece toward the house. 

Setting: Small or Large Group, Math Centers

Objective: Graphing, number sense, more or less

Materials: Little Debbie Gingerbread cookies, butcher paper, markers 

Instructions: Take a sheet of butcher paper and draw a line down the middle vertically.  At the top of one column draw a gingerbread man with a happy face.  At the top of the other column draw a gingerbread man with a sad face.  Give each child one Little Debbie gingerbread man cookie and ask him to write his name in the appropriate column to graph if he liked the cookie or not.  Happy face indicates that they like the cookie and sad face indicates that they did not.  When finished with the graph display it for the whole group and discuss how many children liked the cookie and how many did not.  Use math language such as "more people liked the gingerbread cookie than did not",  "How many more people liked the cookie than those who didn't?", "Which column has less?" etc.

Setting: Small Group, Math Centers

Objective: 1:1 correspondence, number sense

Materials: recording sheet, Do-A-Dot markers, one foam die, Sharpie marker, tape

Directions:  Using your Sharpie marker write the numbers 1-6 on an outline of a gingerbread man like pictured at left.  Copy the recording sheet and give one to each child in your small group.  Each child takes a turn rolling the die and stamps the corresponding number on their gingerbread man with a Do-A-Dot marker. 

1           2

3          4 

5

Setting: Small Group, Math Centers

Objective: number recognition, number sense, spatial relationships, developing critical thinking skills

Materials: foam die, brown paper, gingerbread man pattern, Sharpie marker, Ziploc bags

Directions:  Copy a gingerbread man pattern on brown paper, one per student in your small group and laminate.  Cut out each gingerbread man and using your Sharpie marker write numbers on the body parts of each gingerbread man as seen in picture 2.   Next, cut each gingerbread man apart and put the body parts in Ziploc bag as seen in picture 3.  You will have one bag per gingerbread man when you are finished.  Give each student in your small group a bag of gingerbread man parts.  Students take turns rolling the die.  Whatever number they roll they place that part of their gingerbread man with the matching number in front of them on the table, see picture 4.  If they roll a number they already have they pass the dice to the next person.  Students are finished when their gingerbread puzzle man is complete, see picture 5.