Gingerbread man
The nursery rhyme, "The Gingerbread Man," engages the imagination of school children with colorful characters and adventure. Play acting, simple worksheets and fun with paper comprise only a few creative ideas to bring "The Gingerbread Man" alive for young listeners. The only limits are the child's imagination, which means there are no limits.
Acting
"The Gingerbread Man" includes colorful characters, such as the little old woman, the pig and the cow. Read the story to the children. Breaking the rhyme into small chunks of text, assign students to play the roles of the different characters. Give every child a turn.
Read the mini-rhymes and tell the children to play the characters appearing in each section. For example, in the early section of the rhyme, the gingerbread man jumps out of the oven. Assign one child as the little old woman and one child as the gingerbread man. Instruct the little old woman to pretend to open the oven door and the gingerbread boy or girl to run away. Let the children practice their lines and put on a mini-show. You might pass around play-dough so the children can fashion the gingerbread man before he goes into the oven.
Tactile
Young children enjoy using their hands. Make a chain of a gingerbread man or gingerbread woman. Make a 5-inch tall by 3.5-inch wide gingerbread man template from construction paper. Use a brown paper grocery bag. Cut out the bottom of the bag and cut up one vertical side. The bag will form a long piece of brown paper. Cut the bag horizontally into 5" strips, folding each strip into an accordion fold not much smaller in width than the template pieces. Trace the template onto the top of each folded strip. When you cut out the traced figure, don't cut on the fold. If you allow children to cut the figures, only do this craft with first or second graders. Otherwise, give each child a chain you have cut. Once the paper chains are cut, give children paste, glitter, small buttons, crayons and cotton balls. Let the children decorate their gingerbread men as they like.
Story Board
Since "The Gingerbread Man" includes an assortment of colorful characters, the story offers an opportunity to teach a variety of words. On the left side of a regular size sheet of paper or on a blackboard, list ten characters and objects from "The Gingerbread Man." On the right side of the sheet, list 1 to 10 with blanks for each number. Make each numbered blank adjacent to each of the characters in the left column. Ask the children to place the characters and objects in the order in which each appears in the story.
