FREE Gingerbread Activity and Ideas

Easy Gingerbread Man Activities

We have been enjoying all things Gingerbread lately - from multiple different versions of the story (see this post for a comprehensive look at all the different Gingerbread stories we read and compare/contrast!), to a ton of fun crafts from Oriental Trading. OT was kind enough to send me a few items to try out in my classroom, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

We were part of a Gingerbread Exchange and sent these cuties to Maine to our partner class:

These Silly Gingerbread Magnet crafts were super easy for the kids to make - although I did use a glue gun to adhere the magnets to make sure they would stay since they were being shipped. Honestly, I could have used a template and had the kids make their gingerbread out of construction paper etc., but I was way short on time! This craft took about 15 minutes from beginning to end, required no prep and very little clean up. Best of all, I didn't have to wait for them to dry before mailing lol!

We've made pattern bracelets using these cool Gingerbread themed beads and chenille stems:

 They thread onto the chenille stems so easily! My only qualm about these is that there are way more "candy" pieces than gingerbread men, but I just told my students they could only have 1 gingerbread bead per bracelet and it was all good! This is a great fine motor activity!

Today we wrote about which version of the gingerbread man story was our favorite and then made these cute hallway display Gingerbread peekers:

Again, super easy for the kids to put together, and an easy-peasy writing display for me to hang in the hallway! We have so many activities this week. including Ornament Night tomorrow where the families will be coming to make ornaments and have hot cocoa and cookies. I had to have fabulous, seasonal displays for the hallway, without a lot of time or money spent on them, and these will look fantastic in the hallway, only took 20 minutes to put together, and will showcase our writing skills - it's a win all the way around!

The sweetie on the right used her brown "hand" piece as her nose, but its all good, the pack has enough extra pieces that these "oops" moments are just fine! 

Oh and these stickers are heading to Writing Center to encourage some story telling - I can't wait to read their sticker stories!

Finally, check out these adorable gingerbread erasers!

Not only can my kids sort and pattern with them (I added a set of them to our Math Boxes) but I also made these super cute (and free!) ten frames mats and cards to go with them!

You can grab them for free by visiting my TPT store here!

Now I'm off to prep for our Christmas party which falls on Thursday - the same day my 3 year old has his Christmas program! This means we will have to have the fastest clean up in the history of Christmas parties everywhere in order for me to make it to his day care on time. Which means more activities and fewer sticky, sugary treats! Of course Oriental Trading is helping out with that too - just check out their Pin The Nose on the Snowman game!

Gingerbread Packs and a Target Mini Eraser FREEBIE

Do you do a Gingerbread theme in December? I love all the different versions of the gingerbread Story (read this post for more on comparing/contrasting stories with a FREE Gingerbread Venn Diagram) so we stretch our Gingerbread theme to last a few weeks. This year we have even more gingerbread goodness:

These Gingerbread Addition Clip Cards can be differentiated for ALL of your students because there are 120 cards with sums from 0 to 21! Do you love the mini glitter clothespins?! They're from the Target Dollar Spot!

My students need extra practice with reading CVC words, so these Gingerbread CVC Clip Cards are perfect for our Literacy Centers! Students look at the picture and then put their clothespin on the correctly spelled CVC word.

I have some students still working on number recognition and 1 to 1 counting, as well as subitizing, so these Gingerbread Counting Clip Cards will be great for our Math Centers! 

AND,

We have our Elf coming to visit us in December too! (read this post for more on why you should have an Elf On The Shelf in the classroom!) Our Elf always brings us little notes, presents and goodies, and I've created a whole pack of 24 notes, a request letter and response sheets so you can join in the fun with your class!

You can find these Letters from An Elf in my TPT store!

Finally, did you know that TPT is having their Cyber Monday sale tomorrow and Tuesday? My store will be set to 20% off and then you can get an additiaonl 10% off that by putting in the code when you checkout!

And, if you've checked out Target's Dollar Spot lately, you've probably seen these adorable erasers:

I hope you picked some up, because your students will LOVE using them with this Ten Frame freebie! Just click the picture to grab it for FREE in my TPT store!

Alright, off to find my Elf and wrap up the box for delivery on Wednesday! Have a great week!

Random Acts of Kindergarten Kindness

Have you been wondering about ways to encourage kindness in your classroom? Character building is a big focus of mine this year, so I decided to do a whole month worth of Random Acts of Kindergarten Kindness for December. Regardless of religious affiliation, ALL of my students will love doing these RAKK's.

I created a calendar to help them remember to continue to be kind on the weekends and once our Winter Break begins. Since I'm a teacher with 5 kids of my own, I made sure that all of the school activities were inexpensive and didn't require a lot of prep on my part (aren't we all so BUSY this time of year?!) I am so excited to share this with you - together we can make a world of difference this holiday season!

Go ahead and grab the calendar for free at my TPT store - I included a b&w version to send home for your students to color, as well as a full color version for you to print out for your reference. If you do the activities, I would love to see them - simply add the hashtag #RAKK2016 when posting to social media to help others find fun ideas for inspiring kindness in our students.

Need the calendar for other grade levels? I included a version without "kindergarten"!

Have ideas for other Random Acts of Kindness? I'd love it if you'd rustle up a comment below and share!

A Comprehensive Look At Different Versions of the Gingerbread Man!

Compare and Contrast Gingerbread Man Stories

I love Gingerbread - eating it, smelling it and reading about it!
Each December I read as many Gingerbread stories as I can - comparing and contrasting each one to the "original". My students LOVE it, because a lot of the stories are predictable and seeing the silly cookie get eaten up by the fox makes them feel superior - THEY know not to trust the fox lol! They also love it when the cookie ends up outwitting the fox - yay for the underdog!

Here are the stories I read: (by the way, if you click on a link and make a purchase, Amazon will give me a a few cents - I save it up and buy books for my classroom! My students thank you!)

The Gingerbread Boy: This is the classic tale with the little old lady baking the gingerbread boy and using raisins for his buttons. This is the one we use as our "original" story and compare all the other to.

The Gingerbread Man: This version does not have a river, but it does have a little boy who opens the oven when told not to! The fox still gets the cookie in the end, after he escapes from a wolf and bear!

 The Gingerbread Man: This is close to the original version, and the cookie does get eaten by the fox, but there is no river to cross. Beautiful illustrations AND a recipe for gingerbread cookies on the last page!

The Gingerbread Boy: This is a modern take on the classic! The gingerbread boy runs through New York City - being chased by a rat and construction workers among others! It ends in Central Park, with the fox gobbling up the gingerbread after tricking him while crossing a fountain!

The Gingerbread Bear: A National Park is the setting for this story, and the cookie is baked by a mom for her little girl. The gingerbread bear is eventually tricked by a Park Ranger (the little girl's father) and ends up being shared among the family, campers, a wolf and a chipmunk.

   

The Gingerbread Girl: One of my favorites! The gingerbread girl listens as the old couple talk about what happened to the gingerbread boy (her brother) as she bakes in the oven. When she gets out, she sets out to outwit the fox and succeeds! Plus she stays and makes the old couple happy and brings them lots of visitors!

 

The Gingerbread Cowboy: A Southwestern twist to the classic tale! The cookie is baked by a rancher's wife, and escapes from javelinas, cattle and cowboys before getting caught by a tricky coyote!

 

The Gingerbread Baby: I'm a sucker for this one, because not only does it have fabulous pictures (as always with Jan Brett books) but the Gingerbread Baby eventually makes it to freedom! The little boy in the story creates a gingerbread house for the gingerbread baby and saves him - which leads to a sequel that is also a must read!

Gingerbread Friends: When the Gingerbread Baby is lonely, his friend Mattie creates a gingerbread wonderland for him - complete with friends! The last, fold-out page is fabulous - I'm trying to think of a way to enlarge it and create a poster that my kids can actually put their hands on - they love the illustrations and want to pore over that page every time!

The Gingerbread Pirates: Warning! This one has Santa Claus, so if you're looking for a version that doesn't reference Christmas, this one isn't for you. On the other hand, I love the fact that the pirate captain is trying to save his cookie crew from being eaten by Santa! Not a classic version, with no fox or old lady, but still a must-read in my opinion - the ending is awesome!

The Gingerbread Kid Goes To School: In this version, a principal brings this cookie to school for his lunch, but he escapes and runs around the school! The kids love this one because it's set in school and the tricky person who catches the cookie is a kid!

The Gingerbread Man Loose In School: Love this one! Not only is it a school setting, but the gingerbread cookie doesn't get eaten in the end! This is a great one for a beginning of the year school tour as well!

Now that you have a bunch of stories to compare and contrast, here's a freebie Venn Diagram to use! Just click the picture to download it for free on Google Documents - I use the full-color version on my SmartBoard, and give the kids the b&w copy!

Check out my TPT store for more Gingerbread activities, including a few freebies like my Fresh Baked Number Bonds!