It's a Gingerbread World!

Daintry Zaterka

In Kindergarten, the theme for December was gingerbread. Serious gingerbread work was happening across the curriculum as students read dozens of versions of the Gingerbread Man story from around the world, used gingerbread house candies to practice graphing in math, worked with partners to write their own gingerbread stories, and did a gingerbread man directed-drawing activity. The festive focus on gingerbread wrapped up on the last morning before Winter Break as parents joined their students in the classroom to build gingerbread houses together.

In literacy, Kindergarten students enjoyed exploring the similarities and differences in gingerbread man stories from around the world, marveling that there could be so many variations of the same story. Students read versions of the story from different cultural traditions and countries, including The Matzo Ball Boy, by Lisa Shulman and The Runaway Wok: A Chinese New Year Tale by Ying Chang Compestine. As they listened to variations on the story, the Kindergarteners enjoyed noticing the details that were the same in every story and those that weren’t and seeing how each author uses different characters to put their own spin on the classic tale. “We’ve been talking about setting, character, and theme as we teach reading comprehension strategies,” says Kindergarten teacher Anne Canada, “and this is great because it pulls all of those things together at once.”

Inspired by the many versions of the story they heard, students worked with partners to create their own gingerbread stories with unique settings, characters, and themes, including The Gingerbread Astronaut, The Gingerbread Dinosaur, and The Gingerbread Teenager. Students used graphic organizers to set up the elements of their story, and then together, they told their stories to Anne and Lee Bogaert, who typed them and bound them into a book. Students illustrated their stories this week and were excited to share their “published” work with the class.

Patterns are a common theme in math where students are used to detecting patterns in numbers and shapes, and they were fascinated to notice that the gingerbread stories had patterns too. “The fact that it’s not a visual pattern is mind-blowing to the kids,” says Anne. “It’s far more abstract, but they get it.” Continuing the mathematical thinking prompted by the stories, students did a gingerbread graphing activity, counting all the different kinds of candies that were used for decorations on a gingerbread house and then graphing which candies had the most and which had the least. Students also honed their fine motor skills by tracing and cutting out gingerbread shapes. Once the teachers added holes around the edge, students laced the two pieces together to create a stuffed gingerbread man!

A directed drawing of a gingerbread man was an excellent way for students to practice their listening skills and ability to translate oral directions onto paper. Students followed step-by-step verbal directions to create their gingerbread men. Students created gingerbread men or women, and once their outline was complete, they used watercolors to bring them to life. While some made gingerbread men in classic cookie colors, there were also some rainbow versions with multicolored bodies and red licorice whip pigtails. The directions may have been the same, but each student’s interpretation was completely different!

Harnessing the excitement of the impending Winter Break, students will be partnering with a parent on the final afternoon before the break to build gingerbread houses! The kindergarten teachers like this unit because it’s a great way to touch on multiple holidays and traditions. “It’s festive, wintry, and seasonal and to have the parents come in to build the gingerbread houses is a really fun way to wrap up the unit,” says Anne.

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It's a Gingerbread World!