bringing the Gingerbread Man into real life

This week I am lining everything up for our month of December. What does that entail? I emerse my kinders in living out The Gingerbread Man over two full weeks! You know, those two weeks right before Christmas... It has become a tradition within our school and I've now been at my building long enough that all of the grade levels are excited to watch the new kinders experience it too having gone through it themselves.

I designed these two weeks to incorporate all pieces of the balanced literacy model so you'll find pieces for shared, guided and independent reading as well as interactive, shared and independent writing. I've also included a sample schedule and parent-supply notes. With masks to retell the story and class books as a finished product, its all inclusive. You just need the book (and perhaps a few different versions) to get started!

It truly is magical and I love every bit. If you want to take your kinders on an adventure they'll never forget, I highly recommend you climb aboard Gingerbread Adventures. One of my favorite aspects is that it keeps on giving. When we return from Winter Break, we retell the entire experience and have our writing scoped out for two weeks to work on sharing our experiences.

We document the entire process on camera 

and I love capturing the look of 

as they carefully craft and name their beloved gingerbread;

the look of 

when they go missing;

the look of 

of thinking we'll find them as we tiptoe throughout the hallways and follow our class' plan of outsmarting these cookies;

and the look of 

as we finally capture them.

It all begins with one little book and an idea, 

"What if we made gingerbread cookies?"

{click to get yours}

Looking forward to sharing our adventures new and shiny with you this year!

Just need a piece?

 

{Emergent Readers}           {Retelling Props}