"Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man!"
I’m kind of picky when it comes to Christmas stuff. I don’t go for the usual Santa Claus fare, but I do like gingerbread and in particular, I like the story, The Gingerbread Man.
If you teach emergent readers DLTK has a nice little Gingerbread booklet that you can print out. The focus is on I can… sentences. I copied and print it out and then stapled it together in order to save time in the classroom. On the first day, I read it to the kids and let them start coloring it, then the bell rang. The next day, I read it to them again and made them follow along, broke them up into pairs and then they had to take turns reading the booklet to each other. Once they were done, I let them finish coloring it.
Family Fun Magazine offers a PDF download that I’m using to create a gingerbread man booklet. There are two sizes of gingerbread men. I picked the littlest size and then fooled around with the copier to make 4 men to a page. You will need seven men for the following activity.
I’ve condensed the story down, so just write the following on the board:
Title Page – The Gingerbread Man
Page 1 – There once was a little old woman who decided to bake gingerbread cookies.
Page 2 – When the cookies were done baking, out jumped the little gingerbread man!
Page 3 – “Run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man!”
Page 4 - he called as he dashed out the kitchen door. No one could catch him, until…
Page 5 – he came to a river and was outsmarted by a fox.
First, read the story to the students, most of them are already familiar with it. Then show them your sample. Be sure to write the procedures on the board (1. cut 2. staple 3. write sentences 4. draw 5. color.) Otherwise, a whole lot of class time may be wasted. I try to stick to the same general procedures every time I do this sort of activity so the kids know what to expect. Plan on stapling the hands and feet, but make sure that there are 7 men for each booklet and that the hands and feet aren’t too short, otherwise one of the men may try to get loose!
Kidzone has a whole page devoted to a gingerbread man thematic unit and little giraffes has a nice page on the gingerbread man too and don’t forget to check out virtual vine’s gingerbread page.
