Gingerbread

The last week in November is one of my very favorite at preschool.  It is that time between Thanksgiving and  full-blown Christmas.  I have found a way to marry the delicious tastes and smells of Thanksgiving with the joy and excitement of the sweet days of Christmas to come- Gingerbread!

This week our 4s are reading lots of fun Gingerbread stories.  You would be surprised to find out we have over 10 versions of the the tried and true tale.... there is my favorite-The Gingerbread Baby, then there is The Gingerbread Man, The Gingerbread Boy, The Gingerbread Cowboy, The Gingerbread Pirates, The Gingerbread Friends, The Gingerbread Girl, and many more!

Each story is best enjoyed after you have had a chance to make your own gingerbread person.  That is just what we have been doing doing morning choices this week.  We are using the tools that we are reading about in many of our books, a rolling pink, cookie cutters, and bead for pretend candies.  

One of our gingerbread math lessons had children working in pairs.  It was our first partner work of the year and it went pretty well once everyone got over Mrs. Georgia choosing the partnerships!

Each pair got a tray that had several blocks on it and 2 gingerbread men.  

The invitation was to build a house for their gingerbread baby.  

These 2 students build their house with an interesting feature: a slide!

Once everyone had a house, it was time to practice demonstrating directional/proportional vocabulary.  

I gave 1 step directions, "Place your gingerbread man IN the house", "Place your gingerbread man BESIDE the house", "Place your gingerbread man ON the house", and so on.  

After I was done giving instructions, it was time for the boys and girls to give each other instruction.  This part of the lesson challenged them to think in a different way about the directional/positional vocabulary that we had just worked with.  

I had to include this picture because it helps explain what it going on in the next few.  

T observed the other group that had made a slide to enter their house.  He wanted one too.  He decided that the best way to do it was to get advice from the experts   

He visited with them, collaborated and found out how to do it himself   I love the spirit of our young learners who are having so much fun sharing a learning environmental with each other!

Today we painted gingerkids with some delicious smelling paint.  The white paint was scented like peppermint and the red with cinnamon.  Now all we need to add is some candies.

Tomorrow we will be baking the real things!  Wish us luck, sure hope our gingerbread men don't escape!