Engaging Kindergarten Gingerbread Activities FREE FILE
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Gingerbread Activities for Kids!
I love gingerbread cookies (people either love or hate it). But I love it! I also think our two weeks with the gingerbread man themes are some of our favorites during the holiday season! In this blog post, I will share a few gingerbread man books we use.
You can download the free lesson plans template at the end of this post. Then, your class can have a bushel of learning fun during the month of December!
It is that time of year when the Christmas season is right around the corner. Incorporating a gingerbread theme is a great way (and fun way) to include all students in the fun. Each year, I had students who did not celebrate Christmas, so gingerbread activities were perfect for other classroom teachers in my same situation and me!
Gingerbread Book Activities - Reading Comprehension
There are so many different versions of the gingerbread man story out there out there, but for the purpose of this blog post, I wanted to focus instruction on two books. (Amazon Affiliate Link)
These lesson activities would take place over the course of two weeks.
The Gingerbread Man retold by Jim Alyesworth
This story is more of a traditional version of the gingerbread man story. We love that there is actually a recipe for gingerbread cookies at the end of the book!
Again… I am a huge fan of all things cookies!
The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst
This is the story of the gingerbread man’s sister! She is pretty clever. This is what the publisher has to say about the book:
The lonely old woman and the lonely old man decide to bake a girl this time, but when they open the oven, she runs off like her brother did. Never fear, this smart cookie has a plan to outfox the fox. Will it work? Let’s just say that the ending is sweet for everyone.
You can find more Gingerbread Stories by clicking:
The Gingerbread Man Read Aloud Activities
As you probably know, each week in our Engaging Readers, we take one picture book and spend the week diving deep into the text to strengthen our reading comprehension skills. The teacher does the decoding work (reads the book), and the students do the thinking work (discuss the text).
Here are the comprehension strategies we focus on for The Gingerbread Man by Jim Alyesworth.
- visualization
- retelling the story in sequential order
- problem and solution
- character analysis
- opinion writing
Here are a few images from the week.
The Gingerbread Man Sequencing Activity
Students work together to put the story events in order. Once the story is placed in order, the students turn to their partner to practice orally retelling the story. This is a great activity to help strengthen oral language.
Gingerbread Man Craft
This cute gingerbread man craft holds the gingerbread man characters. This craftivity serves as a helpful tool for retelling the story.
The Gingerbread Man Character Traits
On another day, we have a lesson on character traits. Together, our little learners created this anchor chart.
The adorable gingerbread man activities above and this anchor chart would be a fun idea for a bulletin board. What a simple way to display all the learning that is taking place in your classroom!
Then students responded to the writing prompt: What are some ways the fox tricked the Gingerbread Man?
The Gingerbread Girl Read Aloud Activities
Here are the comprehension strategies we focus on for The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst.
- inferring
- retelling the story in sequential order
- comparing story elements
- opinion writing
Here are a few images from the week.
The Gingerbread Girl Sequencing Activity
Once again, students work together to put the story events in order.
Comparing Different Versions of the Gingerbread Books
Students work together to complete the Venn diagram as they compare the two different versions of the gingerbread books.
Gingerbread Man Vocabulary Studies
We love lifting a few words from the text and examining them closely. We take two vocabulary words from each book.
We love how students can express meaning through illustrations!
Gingerbread Girl Craft Activity
You can find these gingerbread man activities by clicking:
Gingerbread Man STEM Activity
We love adding stem activities to the book we read. These gingerbread man stories are perfect for this stem activity.
Students are asked to make a hypothesis, then write their observations.
You can find the directions and the gingerbread man printables for this STEM activity by clicking:
Gingerbread Man Songs
Over the course of two weeks, there are a lot of gingerbread fun to be had!
Each week we focus on one poem. We practice this poem for fluency.
This is the first gingerbread men song that we would use on the first week.
Then students add the poem to their poetry notebook. We can sneak a little phonics work in during this time.
This is the Gingerbread Boy poem we would use on the second week.
Each poem also comes with an emergent reader so students can revisit their favorite poems all year long.
You can find these particular gingerbread man poems by clicking on the images above or clicking these links:
You can read more about the 5 Day fluency plan for these poems by clicking:
Additional Gingerbread Activities
Over the course of two weeks, there are a lot of gingerbread fun to be had! I will like the activities to the images if you want to find out more.
Gingerbread Man Math Worksheet
This is a simple roll-and-subitize math worksheet.
Gingerbread Man Riddles for the Day
One great morning activity is the riddle of the day. Each day, students listen to the clues in the riddle, then use their inferring skills to guess the answer!
Read more about the Riddle of the Day by clicking:
Gingerbread Math Center Activities
I created these math center activities that are gingerbread themed! These gingerbread printables are a super fun way to overlearn some math skills. This gingerbread thematic unit has very predictable activities that are so much fun.
You can find these gingerbread man math centers by clicking:
You can find even more great ideas for your gingerbread week, including literacy centers, hands-on activities and gingerbread theme activities, by clicking
Gingerbread Activities and lesson Plans
You can download this free set of gingerbread printable lesson plan sets of templates that are editable. Then you can modify them to meet your own classroom needs. Simple click on this image below to grab them from Google Drive.
Gingerbread Man Free File
Grab this free decodable gingerbread man book I made last year. This is an interactive book, so students will cut and paste the image to match the sentence! So fun!
Simply add your email to the box at the bottom of this blog post to get one sent directly to your inbox.
You can find more books like this by clicking:
I hope you found a few more favorite gingerbread activities to add to your classroom.
You can find more literacy activities for some of your favorite books like this one by clicking:
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Deedee Wills
My teaching career allowed me to experience teaching in different classroom environments and grades. My heart belongs to early childhood education. My job is to make teaching FUN, ENGAGING, and EASIER. Welcome!
Hi, I'm DeedeE.
My teaching career allowed me to experience teaching in different classroom environments and grades. My heart belongs to early childhood education. My job is to make teaching FUN, ENGAGING, and EASIER. Welcome!
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2 Responses
Thank you so much for sharing all of these – I'm pinning like crazy! Probably my favorite theme to teach in December 🙂 Jen
These are amazing and it looks you have a great experience to make these type interesting things. You done a perfect creativity here.