~ Ideas for Christmas & The Gingerbread Man~
For Nativity & Advent activities, click here
Books
Gingerbread:
Christmas:
Gingerbread Activities
Gingerbread Rhyme
[Large Motor]
Gingerbread, gingerbread, reach up high,
See if you can touch the sky.
Gingerbread, gingerbread, ready to go?
See if you can touch down low.
Gingerbread, gingerbread, oh-so sweet,
Take a bow; then have a seat.
Gingerbread, gingerbread, in a crowd,
Clap your hands very loud.
Gingerbread, gingerbread, quietly clap.
Now, fold your hands into your lap.
--from The Mailbox
Gingerbread Man Rhyme
I have two big raisin eyes,
(Point to eyes)
And a red hot candy nose,
(Point to nose)
I have yummy white frosting
From my head down to my toes!
(Point to head and toes)
I can run, run, run
Just as fast as I can.
(Run in place)
Can you guess who?
I'm the Gingerbread Man!
--from The Mailbox
Gingerbread Houses
[Art]
We used graham crackers, white icing, small candies, and a milk carton to make and decorate a gingerbread house. We use M&M's, gummy bears,
peppermint disks, mini candy canes, gum drops, and Fruit Loops for the decorations.
Gingerbread Kids
[Art]
Children cut out a gingerbread kid from sandpaper, added colored glue for the "frosting", and buttons, wiggle eyes, ribbon scraps, rickrack, and yarn.
Gingerbread Cookie Decoratin
[Art]
Children used squeeze tubes of icing to decorate a gingerbread cookie.
"Gingerbread Baby" Characters
[Literacy]
After reading Jan Brett's book Gingerbread Baby, we talked about what "characters" are in a story. The second time we read the story, each child was
given a character mask from the story. As we came to each character's part in the story, the child with that character's mask stood. After the
story was read, we named each of the characters and talked about what they did in the story and what they said.
"Gingerbread Baby" Character Masks
Gingerbread Cookie Graph
[Math]
Each child took one bite of a gingerbread boy cookie. We put the cookies on small paper plates, and graphed the cookies by the part of the gingerbread
boy that was bit off (head, arm, leg). We compared most/least/same.
Number Stamping Game
[Math]
I wrote numerals on a strip of paper. Children rolled a die, found the number, and stamped it with a gingerbread boy stamp.
Christmas Activities
Little Jack Horner Nursery Rhyme
Little Jack Horner
Sat in a corner
Eating his Christmas pie.
He stuck in his thumb
And pulled out a plum
And said, "What a good boy am I!"
Stockings
[Art]
Children cut out a Christmas stocking on red or green paper, and added Christmas confetti, sequins, and glitter.
Star Ornaments
[Art]
Children make ornaments for a parent gift, and wrapped the ornaments themselves.
I usually buy wooden star ornaments at a craft store. The children paint them with gold or silver paint and add touches of gold, silver, red,
or green glitter glue. After the stars are dry, I tie gold or silver ribbon to the hanger.
Wreath Ornament
[Art, Fine Motor Skills]
Children made the wreath ornaments by stringing green pony beads on a green pipe cleaner. These are bent into a circle and twisted at the top to make the wreath.
I tie a red ribbon around the top to cover up the twisted end.
Decorating the Tree
I let my children decorate our classroom tree themselves. They enjoy doing it, and is more meaningful to them when they do it themselves.
Gift Wrapping Center
[Fine Motor Skills]
I set up a center in the classroom with wrapping paper scraps, small boxes, and tape. The children enjoy wrapping packages, and they like to
find things in the classroom to wrap and pretend to give to their friends as a gift.
Christmas Trees
[Art]
Children placed a triangle of green tissue paper onto a piece of white construction paper and painted over it with liquid starch. They glued on sequins for
ornaments and painted over it with glitter paint.
Christmas Cards
[Art]
Children made a Christmas card for their parents. I folded over a piece of white card stock paper and write "Merry Christmas" on the front.
The children glued a Christmas tree cutout (from the die cut machine) to the front of the card. They glued sequins on the tree for the ornaments and
glitter glue. The children wrote their names on the inside.
Silver Bell Game
[Literacy]
I labeled dot stickers with uppercase and lowercase letters and placed them on the bottoms of Hershey's Kisses. Children took turns turning two
up at the time to find a match.
Mystery Stockings
[Math]
Children worked in pairs: one child put an amount of jingle bells in a mini Christmas stocking while the other child was not looking. The other
child then felt in the stocking and counted how many jingle bells. We worked with 5 bells.
Discovery Stockings
[Science]
Each Christmas stocking had something inside (jingle bells, block, candy, etc.) Children reached into each stocking to feel and guess what was
inside without taking it out. Photo cards of the objects gave them clues as to what is inside.
United Streaming Videos
[Technology]
"The Night Before Christmas"
"Holiday Facts and Fun: A Multicultural Christmas"
"Santa's Christmas Stories"
"Too Many Tamales"
Door Decoration
The Christmas tree was made with green butcher paper (triangle) and brown construction paper (rectangle). The ornaments are colored circles and an angel cut on a die cut machine, with a glitter outline around them (glitter color matches the paper color). Each child's name was written on an ornament.
Resources
