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Gingerbread Activities for Kindergarten

‘Tis the season for gingerbread!  One of my favorite kindergarten units for December uses a variety of gingerbread themed literacy and math activities.  In this post, I’m sharing my favorite gingerbread activities for kindergarten that will help you plan a festive thematic unit study for your classroom!

Gingerbread activities for kindergarten

Gingerbread Literacy Activities

Gingerbread Stories

There are many different variations of the gingerbread man story, so you can use this variety as part of your literacy instruction! Throughout the week, you can read several gingerbread picture books and create an anchor chart for each story.  In this post, you’ll notice printables and activities based on different gingerbread books by Karen Schmidt, Jim Aylesworth, Brenda Parkes, and Lisa Ernst.

Gingerbread man story sequencing anchor chart
The Gingerbread Girl sequencing anchor chart

Gingerbread Story Sequencing

After reading and discussing different gingerbread stories, students can review and practice story sequencing.  These printable sequencing activities are perfect for creating a visual representation of each story.

Gingerbread Man Sequencing - Option One
Sequencing activity for The Gingerbread Man
Sequencing worksheet for The Gingerbread Man
The Gingerbread Girl sequencing worksheet

Comparing Gingerbread Stories

Another fun literacy activity to complete with students is to compare and contrast different gingerbread stories!  You can create a Venn diagram as a class, then students can complete their own worksheets with this cut and paste activity!

Story comparison Venn diagram class anchor chart
Comparing two gingerbread stories with a Venn diagram
Comparing two gingerbread stories with a Venn diagram
Comparing two gingerbread stories with a Venn diagram

Gingerbread Writing Book

Once students have had a chance to read and discuss different gingerbread books, they’ll probably be ready to write about them! Your students will love creating these cute oven-shaped books.  They will write about which story was their favorite between The Gingerbread Man and The Gingerbread Girl.  Then they will write about how their favorite story ended.

The cover of a gingerbread writing book
A mini reader page that says "The fox ate the Gingerbread Man."
Page of a writing book that says "The Gingerbread Girl taught the fox some manners."
Page of a writing activity that says "My favorite story is The Gingerbread Girl."

Gingerbread Creative Writing

After writing about their favorite gingerbread story, students will be ready to write their own!  This creative writing project comes with different graphic organizers to help students plan their stories. The fun gingerbread craft makes a perfect cover for each story!

Creative writing graphic organizers
A gingerbread man creative writing and craft
A gingerbread girl creative writing and craft

CVC Word Search

You can also bring some gingerbread fun to your phonics practice!  You can place gingerbread cards around the classroom and tell students that there are gingerbread men on the loose!  As students find each card, they can write down each CVC word on the recording sheet.  

Completing a write the room worksheet

Gingerbread Glyph

Finally, your students can create their own gingerbread glyph and writing project.  Students will answer a variety of questions in their mini books, which also serves as the key for the gingerbread glyph.  For example, if they like the taste of gingerbread, they will write their answer in the mini book and add a red nose to their gingerbread person. If they don’t, they will add a yellow nose.

Gingerbread glyph anchor chart
Gingerbread man glyph and book
Gingerbread girl glyph and book

Gingerbread Math Activities

Addition Mini Reader

Students can practice counting and addition with these gingerbread themed mini readers! One option has students count the number of gingerbread men and gingerbread girls pictured on each page, then complete the sentences and equation.  The other option has completed sentences that students will illustrate by adding the correct number of gingerbread men and gingerbread girls before writing and solving the addition equation.

Addition mini reader with illustrations
Addition mini reader with space for illustration or cut and paste

Interactive Addition Stories

Give your students a chance to practice story problems with this interactive addition book!  Students will be able to illustrate and solve four different gingerbread themed word problems using addition.  

Gingerbread Addition Stories Book
An addition activity in an interactive addition book
Gingerbread theme addition word problem

Addition Practice Mats

These addition practice mats are a hands-on and engaging way to help students understand and practice addition.  You can tell an addition story to your students, then have them act it out on their mats.  After placing the gingerbread manipulatives in the correct place, students can document the sum or even write a complete number sentence.  This is a great way to individualize for the needs of the students in your class!

Gingerbread addition practice mat with space to write sum
Gingerbread addition practice mat with space to write equation
Gingerbread addition practice mat with equations on recording sheet
Gingerbread addition practice mat with recording sheet

For a more independent addition mat activity that you can use during centers, you can use these dice rolling addition mats.  Students will roll two dice, record the number of dots, and then solve the addition equation.

Addition practice mat with dice and sum
Addition practice mat with dice and equation
Addition practice mat with dice and recording sheet
Addition practice mat with recording sheet

Gingerbread Addition Practice

You can continue the gingerbread addition practice with these printable addition worksheets.  Students can use the boxes above each gingerbread man as a space to draw dots, which will help them solve each problem.

Gingerbread theme addition worksheets

Gingerbread Addition Craft

This fun math craft is a great way for students to show off what they’ve been learning about addition!  They will create their own cookie sheet craft with aluminum foil, then complete a sentence and addition equation to go with it.  This makes a fun bulletin board display during the winter months!

A gingerbread addition craft

Gingerbread Graphing

You can’t have a gingerbread unit without a gingerbread taste test!  Give each student a gingerbread man to eat, but stop after the first bite to ask which part of the gingerbread man they tried first.

Class graph for first bite data

You can create a class graph to keep track of the results from your taste test.  Then students can create their own individual graph to record and summarize the data.

Our First Bite Data graphing worksheet

Gingerbread Roll and Cover

Another fun way to practice addition is with a roll and cover dice game!  Students can roll two dice, count the total number of dots, and then color or cover the corresponding number on the gingerbread man!  They will continue to play until all of the sums have been covered. Students have so much fun with this game that they don’t even realize they’re hard at work!

Gingerbread man and girl roll and cover activity

Printable Gingerbread Activities for Kindergarten

All of the engaging activities shown above are included in my bundle of math and literacy gingerbread activities for kindergarten. Also included in this bundle is a unit-at-a-glance summary to help you map out these fun activities over the course of the thematic unit study. This will help you create a cohesive unit of gingerbread fun for your students!

If you’d like to take a closer look at everything included in this bundle, you can find it in the A Spoonful of Learning shop or on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Gingerbread Man Math and ELA Activities

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Save These Kindergarten Gingerbread Activities

I hope that these activity ideas have given you some inspiration for your next unit study for December!  If you’d like to find these gingerbread activities later, be sure to save this post!  Just add the pin below to your favorite teaching board on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly find these activities whenever you’re looking for some seasonal fun for your kindergarten classroom!

Gingerbread Activities for Kindergarten