Gingerbread Man Theme Unit for Kindergarten and Preschool

Week 1 plans focused on introducing the children to a variety of fairy tales and their story elements and the concept that fairy tales can teach valuable life lessons.

Character Virtue Lessons Within Fairy Tales

Fairy Tales offer a wonderful opportunity to incorporate the positive character virtues that are encouraged. Exposing children to these positive character virtues through literature (fairy tales) will be the focus in weeks 2, 3 and 4 in the theme book

"Gingerbread Man Perseveres" Emergent Reader

After reading the traditional version of "The Gingerbread Man" the teacher will introduce the word persevere and initiate a discussion on what would have happened in the story if the gingerbread man would have not given up (persevered) and kept running away from the wolf. The emergent reader "Gingerbread Man Perseveres" will be used to model the reading process and introduce children to the possible outcome if the Gingerbread Man would have persevered. The story could be made into a big book, written on sentence strips and displayed on a chart, overhead transparency or chart paper The illustrations are done in a cartoon format and will delight the children. The story line is predictable and follows as below:

I ran away from an old lady.

I ran away from an old man.

I ran away from a dog.

I ran away from a cow.

I even ran away from the fox.

I never gave up and made it safely home.

Sample Page from the Emergent Reader

Large Sample Page Used for Making a Big Book

Note: other versions of the story would be read throughout the week.

The photograph displays how a big book could be made using the larger illustrations. The pictures were colored and glued on poster board. The pages could be laminated and bound and used year after year.

The Gingerbread Man Craft Activities

Kindergarten and Preschool Craft Activity One - Gingerbread Man Craft

In the theme unit you will find different templates to make the Gingerbread Man craft.

Simple Version

The Gingerbread Man template found in the theme unit is painted, dried, cut and features are colored on.

More Complicated Version

1. The gingerbread man template is painted and dried

2. The templates for the clothes (in theme unit) are colored, cut and glued on

Another Version

The Gingerbread Man is not painted but the children draw and color the clothes directly on the template

Kindergarten and Preschool Craft Activity Two - cow, dog and fox puppet to act out the Gingerbread Man story.

The dog and cow templates are also found in the Fairy Tale Theme. The templates are colored, cut and glued on a paper bag to make a puppet as shown in the photographs. These would be used for acting out the story.

Note: Use the fox template that found in Week 2 Plans (The Three Little Pigs).

Gingerbread Man Kindergarten and Preschool Activities - Math Centers

Week one activities would still be used in addition to the suggestions below.

Kindergarten and Preschool Math Activity One - Button Sorting

The children can sort buttons in a variety of ways. They can be sorted according to the number of holes, color or shape.

Kindergarten and Preschool Math Activity Two - Number Recognition and One-to-One Number Correspondence

Children place the correct number of buttons on the gingerbread man as shown on it.

Variation: the templates could be laminated and the buttons are drawn on with an erasable marker.

Fairy Tale Theme - Literacy Centers

Week 1 and 2 activities would continue in addition to the ones listed below. The only difference being the focus letter is now "Mm" and the word family is "an".

Kindergarten and Preschool Activity One - Emergent Reader

A line could be drawn in the middle of each page of the emergent reader prior to copying. The children would cut on this line and sort the pages to make the book. The pictures could be colored.

Interactive Component: The children decorate the Gingerbread Man.

Kindergarten and Preschool Activity Two - letter "m" for man

The template is found in the theme unit. The children would add arms, legs and paint the letter (funny man). Once the letter is dry it is cut out and facial features are added.

Preschool and Kindergarten Activity Three - Letter "Mm" Sound Recognition - Phonemic Awareness

Note: Example of this activity is shown below only this would be done with letter "Mm"

Prior to doing this activity the letter "Mm" sound has been introduced. The children have observed the formation of their lips when making the sound (the children used small mirrors to make this observation). In the member's area you will have access to 150 color and black and white pictures(under Alphabet Pictures). Letter "Mm" sound pictures would be placed with other beginning sound pictures. The children would sort these. A mirror could also be placed in the station for children to observe the formation of their lips while saying the word and focusing on the beginning sound.

Note: The picture names should be explained to the children in advance. Occasionally, it is not very clear what the picture is and some children with a poor vocabulary base may not be familiar with it. These pictures are also great for vocabulary building.

Preschool and Kindergarten Rhyming Activities

Research has indicated that the first stage of being successful in learning to read is having a good phonemic awareness background (ability to differentiate sounds). Hearing and identifying rhyme is one of the first stages in this process.

In instructional or circle time the concept of rhyme would have already been introduced along with the rhyming cards ("an" family) found in the theme unit. The children can sort the cards according to if they rhyme or not.

Note: The cards that don't rhyme all have fairy tale connections. The children could sort the cards according to this feature as well.

Preschool and Kindergarten Activity Five - Visual Discrimination

The fairy tale cards could be used for the children to match the word card to the one on the picture. The children could also make the word using letter stamps or magnetic letters.

More Center Suggestions

Dramatic Play Center

A large castle could be made (the castle template found in the theme book could be enlarged on the overhead). In the castle old clothes, magic wands and fairy tale puppets could be added to act out the fairy tales.

Listening Center

Block Center

Computer Center

Library

Playdough Center

Puzzle Center

Sand/Water/Rice Center

Science Center

After reading the story "Jack and the Beanstalk" the children could grow bean plants. Look at the "Plants Theme" on the website for more ideas related to this.

LESSON PLAN CONTINUED.... this is a monthly plan and you can view full lesson by clicking the links under the heading Fairy Tales on the left hand sidebar.

Information on How to Gain Access to This Theme Plus