Susan's Homeschool Blog

One of my daughter’s favorite books is The Gingerbread Man, so we decided to do some hands-on activities to bring this book to life! We decorated gingerbread men, put on a goofy stick puppet show, made a little pillow and a flip book, and ate some pancakes in the shape of the gingerbread man.

Decorate gingerbread cookies:

First we decorated gingerbread cookies. This activity is great for all ages. You can bake the cookies yourself, or you can buy a set of gingerbread cookies already made at the store. You will need white icing, which you can dye several colors with egg dye. You will also want to decorate with chocolate chips and any other small candies. You can often find kits around Christmastime that include the cookies, the icing, and the embellishments all in one box. (You can decorate a gingerbread house, too, where the little old woman and the little old man can live!)

Put on a goofy stick puppet show:

Using the cookie that you decorated as the main character, re-enact The Gingerbread Man story. My daughter used table place mats for the backgrounds for her show. She also drew the little old woman, the little old man, and the gentle brown cow on some stiff white card stock paper. She taped popsicle sticks to the backs of her stick puppets.

She grabbed a small bear from her room and a gray wolf puppet to play the part of the red fox. We were going to make a river out of a blue blanket but forgot. You can see for yourself how much fun we had re-enacting this fun story:

Make a small pillow of the gingerbread man:

You will need brown felt, brown thread, and some buttons. This is a simple sewing activity that small children can enjoy. You will find instructions on how to make this fun project here:

• Make a Gingerbread Man Pillow with Cookie Cutters

Make a gingerbread man flip book:

Staple some pages together, and use gold or brown construction paper to make your flip book. You can have your child re-tell the story either in words or in drawings on the pages. For more information on how to make this booklet, go here:

• The Gingerbread Man Shape Book

Make shaped pancakes:

Why not finish your Gingerbread Man unit study with a fun pancake meal? You can use a cookie cutter in the shape of a gingerbread man to cut out the shape from large pancakes. Use chocolate chips for eyes and buttons, and use chocolate syrup for the mouth and background. For more instructions on this activity, go here:

• Make Pancakes with Cookie Cutters

I hope you enjoyed all our hands-on ideas for bringing this book to life!