Decorating Gingerbread People
Cut gingerbread people shapes out of brown construction paper or brown paper bags. Give one to each child. Have the children decorate their shapes with felt pieces, rickrack, sequins, fabric or paper scraps, buttons, etc.
Variation: Let the children cover their shapes with glue and sprinkle on dried tea leaves or coffee grounds before decorating.
Making Brown Paint
Let the children experiment with mixing together different colors of paint to make the color brown. Then have them use their brown paint to paint giant gingerbread people shapes on pieces of butcher paper. Display their gingerbread people pictures around the room.
Where Is the Gingerbread Man?
Secretly hide a brown paper gingerbread man in the room. Read the story "The Gingerbread Man" to the children. Then tell them about the gingerbread man you have hidden and let them take turns guessing where he might be. Let the child who guesses correctly hide the gingerbread man for a new round of the game or keep him as a prize.
Gingerbread Puppets
Give the children gingerbread people shapes cut out of construction paper. Let the children decorate their shapes with felt-tip markers. Glue their gingerbread people shapes to tongue depressors to make stick puppets. Let the children talk to each other with their puppets or make up questions for their puppets to answer.
Counting Fun
Cut ten small gingerbread people shapes out of felt. Let the children use the shapes on a flannelboard to practice counting.
Gingerbread People Match-Ups
Cut four pairs of gingerbread people shapes out of felt or construction paper. Decorate each pair differently. Then mix up the shapes and let the children take turns finding the matching pairs.
Run, Gingerbread Man, Run
Let the children have fun running like the Gingerbread Man in the story. How slowly can they run? How fast? Can they run sideways, backward, quietly, noisily?
The Gingerbread Man
Sung to : "The Muffin Man"
Oh, do you know the Gingerbread Man,
Gingerbread Man, Gingerbread Man?
Oh, do you know the Gingerbread Man,
Who ran and ran and ran?
He said, "Catch me if you can,
If you can, if you can."
He said, "Catch me if you can,"
Then ran and ran and ran.
I can run like the Gingerbread Man,
Gingerbread Man, Gingerbread Man.
I can run like the Gingerbread Man,
Now catch me if you can.
Gingerbread Man Cookies
Let the children help you make gingerbread man cookies. Have another adult take the cookies out of the oven when they are done and hide them in a predetermined location. When the children return to the kitchen and see that the cookies have disappeared, let them discover this note on the oven door: "Run, run, as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!" Then search together for the cookies. Once they have been found, let the children decorate them with frosting, raisins, nuts, etc., and enjoy the cookies as snacks.