Preschool Activities for The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School!

This post and others contain affiliate links.  For full disclosures, see the ABOUT page on this blog.

The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School by Laura Murray (illustrated by Mike Lowery) is one of our favorite Gingerbread books!  In the book, a teacher and her students bake a gingerbread man.  As the teacher yells, “RECESS!” the children leave the ginger cookie behind.  Silly adventures follow as the gingerbread man tries to find all of his classmates! Our kids laugh at the trials and conversations between the characters in the story.  It is definitely a keeper for home or the classroom!

GINGERBREAD MAN EXTENSION ACTIVITIES

The Gingerbread extension activities offered below are a great way to extend playful learning after reading the book with your own children!

SONG to SING – Do you know the Gingerbread Man?

Gingerbread Man Song (Tune: Do you know the Muffin Man)

Oh, do you know the Gingerbread Man, the Gingerbread Man, the Gingerbread Man?

Oh, do you know the Gingerbread Man, who ran and ran and ran?

He said, “Catch me if you can. If you can, if you can.”

He said, “Catch me if you can,” then ran and ran and ran.

I can run like the Gingerbread Man, the Gingerbread Man, the Gingerbread Man.

I can run like the Gingerbread Man, now catch me if you can.

~Original Author Unknown

GINGERBREAD BOYS and GIRLS CLASS BOOK – Gingerbread Book for Preschool

Materials needed:  one book template for each student, glue, scissors, crayons and assorted collage materials to create and decorate a Gingerbread Man.

Page 1 of the file (linked above) is a cover page for your book (if using for a classroom of students).  Print page 2 of the Gingerbread Man Book for all of the girls in your class and page 3 for all of the boys.
Children can create and decorate either a Gingerbread GIRL or Gingerbread BOY. Invite the children to use any collage materials that are available (suggestions:  ribbon, string, buttons, glue, poster putty, rickrack, craft eyes, markers, crayons, fabric or paper scraps, etc.)  The children can also add their own PHOTO for the head.  It’s fun for children to look through the book to find their own picture and gingerbread creations!   **Note – If desired, use the Gingerbread Men from the Letters file (linked below) as a gingerbread man template.  Trace the gingerbread onto brown construction paper before inviting the kids to decorate for their book page.  Commercial Gingerbread Men cut outs are also available.

GINGERBREAD MAN LETTER MATCHING and Fine Motor Play! – Gingerbread Theme Literacy Matching Activity for Preschool and Kindergarten

Materials needed: Gingerbread Letter Matching file (A-Z linked above), Clothespin, and scissors.

Cut out each of the gingerbread men and laminate for durability if desired.  After cutting out all of the gingerbread man cards, shuffle the cards and invite the children to find the matching pairs by matching the upper case letters to the corresponding lower case letters.  When the children find a matching pair, use the clothespin to clip the pair together (see photo above).

For older children:   You can turn this activity into a matching game by turning the cards over and playing like a typical “Memory” game.

For younger children: Limit the number of matching pairs that are set out for the child to find.

For very young children:  Print out two copies of the Gingerbread Letter Match file and have the children match upper case gingerbread men to upper case gingerbread men or lower case to lower case.

To improve fine motor skills – invite the children to use clothespins to clip the matching pairs together.  A literacy and fine motor tray (see photo above) is an inviting way to encourage skills.  The Gingerbread Tray might include:  paper and crayons for writing letters, stamping (stamp pad/alphabet stamps), and clothespins for clipping the matching letters (OR for use with the Letter to Picture Matching printable below).

GINGERBREAD LETTER to PICTURE MATCHING  – Gingerbread Letter Picture Match

Materials needed: Letter Picture Match (linked above) and scissors.

Cut out each of the gingerbread men and laminate for durability if desired. After cutting out all of the gingerbread man cards,  shuffle the cards and invite the children find the matching pairs by matching the gingerbread man with the beginning letter to the corresponding picture (for example, K is for Kite).

For younger children: Limit the number of matching pairs that are set out for the child to find.

Older children can play a memory match as in the letter-to-letter instructions above.

For more GINGERBREAD THEME activities, the entire Gingerbread Thematic Unit is now available on this blog.    To purchase The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School, click the preview below!