Gingerbread Goodies

Here's a post I wrote last year around this time, containing some cute gingerbread activities. 

I thought it would be fun to post it again!

Here's a simple kindergarten gingerbread writing activity for you! After reading a gingerbread man book, have the children decide what they want their own gingerbread man to run from.

I didn't help the children write their words. They had to get their mouth ready to say it and keep writing the letters for the sounds they heard. They did a great job and were very proud of themselves.

Click here to get this for free!

Check out more of my gingerbread activities below...

Here is some of what's included...

Gingerbread Fun For Little Learners

Gingerbread Scrambled Sentences

How I Eat a Gingerbread Cookie

Here's a picture of the gingerbread dolls my first graders made using fabric paint. This is always a huge hit!

And some close-ups...

Gingerbread Writing Freebie

Here's a simple kindergarten gingerbread writing activity for you! After reading a gingerbread man book, have the children decide what they want their own gingerbread man to run from.

I didn't help the children write their words. They had to get their mouth ready to say it and keep writing the letters for the sounds they heard. They did a great job and were very proud of themselves.

Click here to get this for free!

Check out more of my gingerbread activities below...

Here is some of what's included...

Gingerbread Fun For Little Learners

Gingerbread Scrambled Sentences

How I Eat a Gingerbread Cookie

Here's a picture of the gingerbread dolls my first graders made using fabric paint. This is always a huge hit!

And some close-ups...

Monday Made It...December Edition!

It's the first Monday of the month, so it's time to link up with Tara, over at Fourth Grade Folics
 for Monday Made It!

Monday Made It #1

Today, I'm going to show off an anchor chart I made to go with a cute gingerbread activity.

I don't usually make cute anchor charts because, if I can't create it on the computer, it's just not going to be cute at all! This anchor chart went with the activity you see below. Just click on the image and you can download it for yourself.

First, I gave each child a gingerbread cookie to sample. We brainstormed descriptive attributes and wrote them in the bubbles. If they were synonyms, we wrote them in the same bubble. We also brainstormed strong verbs that mean the same as ate and wrote them on the chart, as well. The children chose their favorite descriptive words and wrote them on their own chart. Then, we ate another cookie and mapped out the order in which we bit into the cookie. We colored a gingerbread cookie to show the order in which we ate it. Finally, we used our coloring sheets, strong verbs, and descriptive attributes to write an essay titled "How I eat a gingerbread cookie." Year after year, this activity is always a favorite and is talked about for months.

Monday Made It #2

Another gingerbread activity I like to do with my students is to have them trace a gingerbread pattern on brown paper and use fabric paint to decorate it. They love the way it dries all puffy and the colors are brilliant. Here is my example:

Monday Made It #3

My class is addicted to the game Scoot. I guess you can say that I am, too! I even blogged about it here. This weekend, I made two new Scoot games to help practice and assess my students' knowledge of contractions.

And, a fun contraction matching game with a winter theme.

Since I don't teach grammar in isolation, I have to make sure to teach all the standards during my writing mini lessons and station time. I try to create fun games and activities to cover every single grammar skill so my students can practice them each week.

Gingerbread Week, Freebie, and a Proposition

This week, my students have been enjoying completing gingerbread activities. This is always a favorite topic! There are so many wonderful books to read, and all of them are chock full of teaching opportunities. For example, The Gingerbread Girl,

written by Lisa Campbell Ernst, has tons and tons of alliteration examples. You can also use this book to teach onomatopoeia. My students love to compare and contrast this book with the Gingerbread Boy,

written by Paul Galdone.

Writing about their favorite gingerbread book is always fun, too! My first graders also illustrate their favorite part of the story.

Just click on either image above to download.

Here are pictures of some of my
 station activities this week:

This is a fun contraction activity from my buddy
  Alisha, aka The Bubbly Blonde.

This is from my gingerbread scrambled sentences pack.

These cuties are writing about their favorite
 gingerbread book.

This is a kindergarten activity I did. It can be found in my Gingerbread Fun for Little Learners pack. It actually goes with a scrambled sentences activity. However, what I did was, read The Gingerbread Boy, brainstorm words to describe him, and have the children write two sentences, using a describing word in each sentence.

The scrambled sentences and rhyming activities 

are also from my 

Gingerbread Fun for Little Learners pack.

Gingerbread Freebie, etc.

Here's a fun activity to do this week if you are still in school, like me! Read a Thanksgiving related story and make a list of all the strong verbs. Then, let the children act out the verbs while the class guesses the verb. This is a great activity to do with any theme and is a wonderful way to integrate grammar, reading, and writing. This book has tons of strong verbs. After each word is acted out, have the children cross out the word so it's not repeated and so you can see if they can find the word in the list.

The First Thanksgiving Day

A Counting Story

By Laura Krauss Melmed

This is a picture of a first grader acting out one of the words. Can you guess which one?

The week after Thanksgiving, I will be starting my gingerbread unit. One of the activities I love to do is called "How I Eat a Gingerbread Cookie!" The children sample a cookie, describe it, and map out the order in which they bit into the cookie. Then, they write about it, using lots of descriptive words. It's always a favorite.

Would you like to do this activity, too? Just click on the above image! I hope you enjoy it enough to come back here and tell me so!

If you need another activity to supplement your gingerbread unit, you can also check out my scrambled sentences pack.

For those of you who are already planning for the holidays, like me, I have this great winter holiday language pack.