Gingerbread Man

Mrs. Smothers' Gingerbread Page

This page is all about Gingerbread Men, Babies, Boys and Girls, and the many different ways to we use them in the classroom. Generally, I use this theme as enrichment activities the week before the Winter break. I use Gingerbread Men to teach language arts, writing, and math well as lots of great songs and poems, map skills and art activities. I begin my Gingerbread unit by reading the the Gingerbread Man story is in book four of the Scott Foresman First Grade Reading Anthology. Next, we read the "Gingerbread Baby" by Jan Brett. Then follow up with different versions of the traditional Gingerbread Man tale.

Language Arts

After I read a different version of the Gingerbread Man to the class we fill in a big wall chart together(that I have made before hand). I usually read 5 different versions of the story. I have six different caterogories that we complete:1. charerters- in order of appearence, 2. What happens to Gingerbread Man?, 3. What does the Gingerbread man say?, 4. What type of cookie- man, baby, cookie, 5. Things that are the same, 6. Things that are different. We fill in catergory 1 - 4 after each story and 5 and 6 after reading all 5 versions.

Scroll down to bottom of page to she a list of different versions.

poster

When we come back to the room after finding the Gingerbread man is gone. We wonder “HOW DID HE ESCAPE!” -We brainstorm ideas on how they think the Gingerbread Man escaped from the oven. We write their ideas on chart paper. Then they go back to their desks and write how they thought he escaped, where he might be, and how they would catch him. The students are so eager to write their ideas down!

We make a Class book. Our book is an ABC book titled "My Gingerbread Man can.... For example~ "My Gingerbread Man can..." Act like a dog....Bounce a ball....Count to 100....Dance like a chicken....etc.

We make a Venn Diagram after reading the Gingerbread Man in the anthology and the Gingerbread Baby books comparing and contrasting the story. We compare baby, man, and what is the same about the two. We make one whole group and then the students make one individually.

We make a chart, using a graphic organizer, of who chased the Gingerbread Man first, second, third, and so on.

We write our own version of the Gingerbread Man. It may take a couple of days to finish the whole process. First, we start off by making a chart with the following questions:
Who made the Gingerbread man/baby?
What kinds of decorations were used for the eyes, mouth, and buttons?
Who does he run away from?
What does he say?
What happened at the end of the story? Did he get eaten?
I model how to take the answers from the questions to write a more detailed story. We write a story whole group before the students write one on there own. The students use questions to write their own story. They write short answer down next to the question. They do not answer in detail on the question sheet. They write the detail in the story.

Story Starters-What might have happened if the gingerbread man did not get eaten by the fox? Where do you think he might go? Who else do you think he might meet? What else do you think he might do?

Writing Poems- We write a five line Gingerbread man poem.

Line 1: Name of character
Line 2: Describing words
Line 3: What they do
Line 4: Loves to
Line 5: But ends up

Gingerbread Man
small and brown
chased by everyone
loves to run
But gets trapped in a house

Math

Graph ideas- Graphs are great to develop higher order thinking skills!
After reading the several versions of The Gingerbread Man, we make a graph showing which story was our favorite.
We also graph which character most showed up in the story. We make a graph using the different character from all the different versions and discover which character appears most often the the Gingerbread man books.

In the past when we were not restricted by the food guidelines we did the following:
We decorate Gingerbread Man cookies. Then using real cookies or tag board cutouts, we decorate with ... raisins, chocolate chips, red hots, etc. When children finish decorating, make a graph for each part of the Gingerbread Man, showing what items were used to make that part. "What Did You Use For Eyes."

When the students where finished we, graphed which part of the Gingerbread man did you bit first. I counted down 5,4,3,2,1, bite. The children would laugh with delight.

Measurement Ideas-I use these activities to help give the students prior experience before we start our measurement unit.

gingerbread man template

mini gingerbread template

How tall is my Gingerbread Man?
Measure with paperclips, rulers, inchworms, unifix cubes, etc.
variation-My Gingerbread Man is ___ ________ around (perimeter).
Use different sized Gingerbread Men and measure how tall they are.

Use Gingerbread babies to measure different items or distances in the room. I give them about 12 mini babies or 4 larger babies to measure with and let them work with a partner. I give some children mini babies and some larger babies to measure with and them compare the differences in measuring with the different sizes.
How many Gingerbread Men is it to the _______?
How many Gingerbread men is it to the ______ to the _______?
How many Gingerbread Men is the whiteboard?
Allow the students to work with a partner to measure how tall they are.

Gingerbread Men Fact Families
I use the mini Gingerbread Man template and give each child 3 men to use make a Gingerbread Fact Family House. The students choose three numbers and write them on the men and write the two addition and two subtraction sentences on their house.

Gingerbread Man Glyph

We also make a glyph. A glyph is a black line drawing that the children color following a specific set of instructions, something like the following:
If you put a star on your tree, color nose red.
If you put an angle, color nose yellow.

After we made our glyphs, we discovered about our class:

Gift They Prefer eyes~green, blue brown

Tree Topper buttons~circle, triangle

Spend Christmas lines~straight, wavy

Tree Decorations mouth~circle,square, rectangle

clothes ~ 5

star ~ 10

at home ~ 10

lights only ~ 1

games ~ 7

angel ~ 7

at relatives ~ 7

tinsel only ~ 4

toys ~ 5

both ~ 12

Here are our Gingerbread Glyphs

Gingerbread Baby Hunt

On the first day of the unit, after we have read the first Gingerbread Man story, the children and I prepare a large Gingerbread man. I use the box mix. It works great. We roll it out and cut out a giant Gingerbread man, then we take it to the oven (in A.L.E.) to bake. We usually drop it off right before lunch. After lunch is over, we return to the oven to see if the Gingerbread Baby is done. Imagine our surprise to find out he is gone. The rest of the week we hunt for the Gingerbread Baby all over the school. We look in the office, library, nurse's office, computer lab, etc., but we never catch him. The Gingerbread Baby leaves us notes/clues and even a trial of crumbs as to where he has been. The Gingerbread Baby finally makes his way back to our room tired from all the traveling around the school. Due to the new food guidelines we ice and decorate Gingerbread men at our Christmas party.


The Gingerbread Baby we made.	He was tasty!

We thought we found him in our reading specialists room, but it turned out to be a stuffed Gingerbread Baby. He was reading a story about himself!

Other Gingerbread Activities

Other Gingerbread Man activities include:

Painting a Gingerbread Man

We make cinnamon/ applesauce gingerbreadmen ornaments and when they are dry we paint them.

Gingerbread Houses

One of our most exciting Gingerbread activities is building a Gingerbread House. I have started making the houses on the day of our party due to the new food regulations.

gingerbread houses

Build Your Own
Gingerbread House I

Build Your Own
Gingerbread House II

We also make Gingerbread Houses from Graham Crackers and Royal Icing. Students get to add sprinkles and fancy candies, attach candies, pretzels for windows and doors, frost the roof, and add other candy decorations. This is exhausting sometimes buttons of fun! Due to the new food restrictions we will do this activity at our Christmas party.

Poems

Gingerbread Poem
Stir a bowl of gingerbread,
Smooth and spicy brown.
Roll it with a rolling pin,
Up and up and down.
With a cookie cutter,
Make some little men.
Put them in the oven
Till half past ten!

Gingerbread Children
by Ilo Orleans
Gingerbread children
Stand in a row--
Very good children
Always, you know.
They never will jump
Or kick or leap,
Or start to cry when
It's time to sleep.
They never run off
Or look around.
And no one has heard
Them make a sound.
Gingerbread children
Are fine to meet;
But, much better still,
They're good to eat!

Songs

Where is my Gingerbread Man?
(tune of "Oh where has my little dog gone?")
Oh where, oh where is my Gingerbread Man?
Oh where, oh where can he be?
He popped out of the oven and ran out the door.
Oh where, oh where can he be?

Gingerbread Man Song
(tune: The Muffin Man)
Oh, do you know the Gingerbread Man,
The Gingerbread Man, the Gingerbread Man?
Oh, do you know the Gingerbread Man,
Who ran and ran and ran?
He said, "Catch me if you can,
If you can, if you can."
He said, "Catch me if you can,"
Then ran and ran and ran.
I can run like the Gingerbread Man.
The Gingerbread Man, the Gingerbread Man.
I can run like the Gingerbread Man,
Now catch me if you can.

Eat, Eat, Your Gingerbread Boy
(To the tune of "Row, Row, Row, Your Boat)
Eat, eat, your Gingerbread Boy,
Before he runs away.
Faster, faster, faster please,
Don't let him get away!
Catch, catch the Gingerbread Boy,
Catch him, yes, today.
Faster, faster, faster still,
For he has run away.
Say bye-bye to the
Gingerbread Boy.
Say good-bye today.
Say so long for he is gone.
The fox ate him today.

Fun Dough

Gingerbread Play dough

1 cup flour, 1/2 cup salt, 2 tsp. cream of tartar
Spices: allspice, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg
1 cup water, 1 tsp. vegetable oil

Mix dry ingredients with spices to get color you like (smells good too)

Mix water and vegetable oil together,add to dry ingredients, stir.

Cook the mixture for 2-3 minutes in a pot, stirring frequently.

The dough will pull away from sides of pan and clump together.

Knead the dough until soft, smooth, and pliable.

Cool. Store in air tight container such as plastic freezer bag.

Gingerbread Books

Cajun Gingerbread Boy by Berthe Amoss

The Gingerbread Man by John A.Rowe

The Gingerbread Doll by Susan Clarion

The Gingerbread Boy by Paul Galdone

The Gingerbread Man by Pam Adams

The Gingerbread Man by Sally Belly

The Gingerbread Man by Scott Cook

The Gingerbread Man by Davis Cutts

The Little Cookie Margaret Hillert's

The Gingerbread Boy by Kathy Wilburn

The Gingerbread Man by by Karen Schmidt

The Gingerbread Boy by Richard Egielski

Gingerbread Man Recipe

Gingerbread Pancakes

I add 1/4 cup coca, 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons
oil& use milk, not water for pancakes

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