Looking for activities that are fun, engaging, and not tied to a specific holiday? Try a gingerbread man-themed week in your upper elementary classroom this December!
If you know me, you know that while I love celebrating the holidays at home with family and friends, I love to stay away from the December religious holidays in the classroom. Instead, I love to use fun themes that ALL of my students can participate in and feel connected with. That is why when it comes to December themes, my favorite is the gingerbread man!
Gingerbread Man activities are a great way to engage your students; even our big kids love to read and create gingerbread houses and gingerbread people!
These activities will be your go-to for every December! From a fun game idea to reading, writing, and math-based tasks, your kids will be highly engaged and learning! #teacherwin
1. Gingerbread Man Character Analysis
Reading gingerbread man books and short stories is a great way to dive deep into understanding characters, as well as character traits and emotions. We also love to look at how the characters change from beginning to end, and so many gingerbread stories help us do that! Using short stories specifically designed to dive into character analysis is a great way to kick off any gingerbread man week!
Here is how you can get started...
✔ Discuss character traits, charting different traits that characters have on the inside and those they have on the outside. This list will help you get started.
✔ Read these short stories about gingerbread men that were designed to help students focus on inferring character traits.
✔ Have students pull evidence from the reading to show and support a character trait by collecting what the character says, does, and the character's actions.
✔ Go one step further and have the students create a scrapbook page as the gingerbread character in the story.
2. Compare and Contrast Gingerbread Man Books
There are so many ways to use gingerbread books! There are so many twists on this fun story. Grab a stack of gingerbread man-themed picture books and get reading. Pick three or four and read them over a few days. Use each book for a different reading focus like character understanding, problem and solution, and sequencing events.
The magic happens after you read all three or four! Get your students really thinking by comparing and contrasting all of the stories. Have them focus on character traits, problems, setting, and theme!
Here are a few unique gingerbread man books to get you started:
✔ The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School
✔ The Gingerbread Pirates
✔ Tough Cookie
Grab the FREE organizers to use with ANY book!
3. Design Your Own Gingerbread Man
Grab a gingerbread man template and send your students off to create their own unique gingerbread person!
For this project, students will create a gingerbread
character with or without a theme, and color and decorate it. Then students
will write a descriptive paragraph about their gingerbread character. Hang the
gingerbread man on a bulletin board with the included letters: “Can you find
me?” and have your students read aloud their pieces. After they read, the class
has to find their gingerbread man based on their descriptive writing.
💡Teacher tip: When you
get down to the last few that are on the bulletin board that have not been
identified, have several students read theirs without having the class find them
so that the last one is not as obvious.
4. Gingerbread Themed Text Structure
Bring reading strategies that you have to teach into the holiday season by using gingerbread-themed passages. One big focus for our upper elementary students is understanding text structure. Combine the objectives students have to learn and understand with gingerbread-themed passages.
Use the included five gingerbread-themed passages written in different text structures - compare and contrast, cause and effect, problem and solution, sequence of events, and descriptive writing - so that your students can dive into informational texts, sharpen their reading skills, and enjoy the December season...all at the same time!
These comprehension foldables include everything you need on one page: passages, graphic organizers, strategy practice, and reflection. Plus, the included anchor charts make differentiating text structures easy to understand for students. Whether you are working with the whole class, small groups, or literacy centers, this resource fits seamlessly into your routine. It is a must-added item for your gingerbread-themed week!
5. Gingerbread House Math Project
This is my favorite math project of the year! For this project, students work in groups designing a gingerbread house, but they must stay within the budget they were given! The kids love this grown up, real world math project! Bonus for you, it is differentiated on three levels, so you know that your students are practicing the skills that they have mastered!
6. Gingerbread Man Fun
Bring on the fun! I love to have fun activities for kids to complete during a gingerbread-themed week. Activities like word searches, coloring pages, and designing your own gingerbread man are perfect for fast finishers, centers, morning work, or any time you want to have a little fun in your classroom! These can be added to your routine, or you can create a fun packet of activities to keep the students engaged with critical thinking tasks during downtime throughout the day.
7. Gingerbread Man Hot or Cold
Super simple and so much fun! This game is easy and fun to play. Grab the free gingerbread man download (it is included in the free graphic organizer pack) and cut it out. I like to laminate it so it stands the test of time! Select one student to be the seeker and go outside your classroom, close their eyes, and count to 25. Select another student to hide the gingerbread man. After the student who was outside returns, the students in the room have to help them find the hidden gingerbread man. The catch? They can not talk or point. They can only use their arm to help guide the student to the gingerbread man. How? Students sitting at their desk use their right arm. Have them keep it straight. If the seeker is "cold" or far away from the gingerbread man, they keep their arm straight and flat on the table. As the seeker gets closer they start raising their arm. If the seeker is "hot" they raise their arm straight up into the air.
This game is so much fun and bonus...it stays quiet, which is a welcome feeling of peace during a hectic month!
8. Easy Gingerbread Houses
I love the idea of making gingerbread houses as much as the next teacher (and mom), but honestly, they are so much work and messy! Plus, they never come out right, and the kids end up frustrated and disappointed! Skip all the mess and try these fun alternatives instead:
✔ Gingerbread House Ornament
Grab these and leave them on the back table for the kids to work on during downtime or indoor recess in December! The kids LOVE to work on these with any free moment!
✔ Gingerbread Collaborative Coloring Poster
✔ Gingerbread House 500 Piece Puzzle
These gingerbread man activities and ideas for upper elementary are just what you need to engage your students this holiday season without focusing on the holidays! So jump into a gingerbread man-themed week! From character trait activities to designing gingerbread people and houses, these lessons spark creativity and keep kids learning. Plus, they allow every student to feel included and connected, no matter their background. Give it a try - this will definitely be your new favorite December tradition!
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