This week my two little ones and I had a fun and casual study of The Gingerbread Man. Each day we read the story but as the day progressed I had the girls tell parts of the story from memory.
Day 1: Patterns and Shapes
We made Construction Paper Gingerbread Men.
Supplies:
* Gingerbread man pattern.
* Construction paper.
* Scissors
* Glue or glue sticks
Directions:
1. Using your template cut out gingerbread men for your children from brown construction paper.
2. Cut out various shapes to be used as eyes, noses, buttons, bows, and more from construction paper.
3. Have your child glue the eyes and such on the gingerbread man to decorate.
The girls had fun identifying shapes and colors. My five year old was not challenged by this so I had her form some patterns and she had fun decorating her project.
In addition, we had several little gingerbread men I printed out on white paper. Some of the gingerbread men had heart buttons, some had circle buttons and some had square buttons. The girls made gingerbread patterns using these little guys.
Day 2: “G” is for Gingerbread
Time to learn about the letter “G”.
Activities for a Kindergartner:
* Writing the letter “G”.
* Finding items around the house that start with “G”.
* Discussing the difference between a hard “G” and a soft “G”.
* Using foam letters have the child spell out “G” words.
Activities for a Toddler or Preschooler:
* Identify the letter “G”.
* Teach the sound of “G”. I only use hard “G” at this point.
* Show the child a “G” and than put out a few foam letters with one being a “G”. Have the child pick out the “G”.
* Show pictures or use stuffed animals and have the child identify which one starts with “G”.
Day 3: Letter Play
Here are a few activities we had fun doing:
Shaving Cream Canvass: Using a small pan, I sprayed it with shaving cream and allowed the girls to write letters with their fingers. We then used food coloring to make different colored shaving cream and applied it to paper making shapes and letters.
Digging for Letters: I place small letters in a glass pan and then filled it with rice. The girls dug through it to find the letters. Once my 5 year old found the letters she had to match them to a picture of something that started with that letter.
Day 4: Sequencing
Story Sequencing
I printed out a baking sequencing story from DLTK’s here.
I simply had the girls put the story in order and paste it to construction paper.
We went over the story and I challenged them to tell me what happened in order. I also read the story out of order and had them stop me when I was wrong and correct me. Giggles were the result of this fun time!
Day 5: Play Kitchen and Real Baking
Play dough is a fun way to play kitchen. We brought out all the play kitchen supplies and some play dough. The girls made play dough gingerbread cookies.
Now, a study on the Gingerbread Man is not complete without making gingerbread cookies! I found a great recipe that I have used several times that does not require molasses. As always baking in the kitchen is a fun and delicious experience. It also teaches math, following directions, and order.
Here is the recipe for Gingerbread Men without molasses.