Gingerbread Unit
Books
The Gingerbread Baby - Jan Brett
The Gingerbread Boy- Paul Galdone
The Cajun Gingerbread Man - Berthe Amoss
The Gingerbread Man - Eric Kimmel
The Gingerbread Boy - Richard Egielski
The Gingerbread Man - Jim Aylesworth
Phonemic Awareness/Language Activities
Letter:  Gg distinguish between hard g and soft g.  Make a list of words that have the soft g sound like gem, gel, general, George, gym.  (Mailbox, December '99)
Letter sounds -relate actions to beginning sounds and letter recognition:  The Gingerbread can B - bounce, C- catch, D -dance, F- fall, G- gallop, H- hop, J- jump, K-kick, L-laugh, M- march, N- nod, P- paint, R- run, S- shout, T- talk, V- vacuum, W- walk, Y- yawn, Z- zip.
Alphabet matching games- Cut out big and little gingerbread man and put uppercase letters on the big ones and lower case letters on the little ones.  Have the students match the letters.
Beginning sounds- Put a letter on a gingerbread man and a picture on another.  Have the children match the pictures with the letter it begins with.
Reading Activities
Read, The Gingerbread Boy and brainstorm ways to rescue the gingerbread boy from the fox.  Then prepare a letter on chart paper to the class from the gingerbread boy.  (Mailbox, December)
Dear Friend,
          I hear that you've read my story!  I just wanted to tell you that the ending is all wrong.  I was never meant to be eaten by that tricky fox!  Please help me! 
          Can you please write my story a new way so that I don't get eaten in the end?  I want to be able to play with all my gingerbread friends!  I hope you can save me! Thanks!
Your pal,
The Gingerbread Boy
Have the students write their own endings in which the Gingerbread boy is saved from the fox.  This could be a bulletin board by enlarging a gingerbread man and using the letter for the center of the board. Then add the students stories and the title -Save the Gingerbread Boy!
Creative Writing- Ask students to think about who or what the Gingerbread boy might run into at the circus, zoo, amusement park.
Provide drawing paper and allow the students to create their own adventure map.  Have them draw the places to where the gingerbread traveled and what he saw.
Puppets- Using either the masks from Jan Brett's site of drawings of a cow, horse, fox, etc.  mount the puppets on tongue depressors and allow the students to retell the story during center time.
Moveable Gingerbread Man - Cut out a gingerbread arms, legs, and body from poster board.  Fasten the parts together with paper fasteners.  Glue gingerbread man to a wooden stick.
Reading/Comprehension -  Read several versions of the Gingerbread Man and make a chart to compare the various versions.  Compare similarities and differences.  Make a list of characters used in each story.  Also, track the setting and the plot.
Poems/charts - Write sentence on sentence strips and use in pocket chart.  "Stop! Stop!"  said (student's name). But the Gingerbread Man said. "Run, run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!" 
Math
Give each child a gingerbread cookie and have them take ONE bite and stop.  Then graph which part of the gingerbread the students ate first. 
Program gingerbread boys to have numbers and dots.  Have the students match the number with the correct dots. 
Using unifix cubes, measure the length of the gingerbread man.
Gingerbread Glyph-  Draw a gingerbread and have the students color it according to their own characteristics.  When complete graph different characteristics.
First instruct students to color the body of the gingerbread man brown.
Girl- color eyes brown                       Boy- color eyes blue
5 years old - color nose red              6 years old - color nose black
Fav. Subj math -color bow tie red     Fav. Subj. reading - color bow tie purple
Oreo cookies - 3 buttons                  Choc. Chip cookies -4 buttons           
Art Ideas
Make a Gingerbread house.  Each child uses a small milk carton.  I hot glued the carton onto a paper plate.  Then the students put frosting on the carton (I used store brand frosting and added powered sugar and it worked great).  Give each student four grahman cracker squares.  I broke the large rectangles in half.  Put the cracker on 2 sidesd of the carton and use the other two for the roof.  Have students use more frosting to put on creackers.  Then let students be creative by adding assorted candy.  Messy but FUN!
Copy a gingerbread pattern and have the students dress them.  I had old wallpaper books that we used for clothes.  We used glitter for finishing touches. 
Rhymes
Gingerbread Baby( tune:Oh, Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?)
Oh where. Oh where is the gingerbread baby?
Oh where, Oh where has he gone?
(He pranced around the big blue bowl)
And then he ran on and on!
He climbed right up the garden wall.
Repeat 4 times changing ( ) with:
He stopped to get a drink from the well.
He jumped off the bridge and onto the ice.
He jumped up and tweaked the milkman's nose.
Final Verse
Oh where, Oh where is the Gingerbread Baby?
Oh, do you think that he's lost.
To his gingerbread house in the snow.
He clapped his hands and he ran right in,
Gingerkids
One little, two little, three little gingerkids.
Four little, five little, six little gingerkids.
Seven little, eight little, nine little gingerkids.
Ten litle gingerbread kids.
Gingerbread Man Song (tune:" The Muffin Man")
Oh, do you know the Gingerbread man, the Gingerbread man, the 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, the Gingerbread man, the Gingerbread man.
I can run like the Gingerbread man.
Now catch me if you can.
My Gingerbread House 
I made a house of gingerbread.
It was so sugary sweet.
It took me all day long to make.
But lasted just a week!
Monday- I ate the ceiling
Tuesday- I ate the door
Wednesday- I ate the windows
Thursday- I ate the floor
Friday - I ate all four walls
Saturday - I ate the lawn
Sunday- I licked up the crumbs
My gingerbread house is gone!
Gingerbread Men
5 little Gingerbread men lying on a tray,
one jumped up and ran away.
Shouting "catch me catch me if you can,
I run really fast I'm the gingerbread man.
4, 3, 2, 1
No more gingerbread lying on a tray. 
They all jumped up and ran away.
Oh, how I wish they had stayed with me to play.
Next time I'll eat them before they run away.
Five Little Gingerbread Men (by Gail Nettles)
One little gingerbread man, lonely and blue,
Met another lonely friend and then there were two.
Two little gingerbread man happy as could beFound one hiding and that made three.
Three little gingerbread men running to the store,
There they bought another one and that made four.
Four little gingerbread men feeling so alive,
Rounded up another one and that made five.
Five little gingerbread men having lots of fun,
Better get back home now that dinner is done.
Must See - Gingerbread Links
G if for Gingerbread - KinderKorner
Sherri Anderson's Gingerbread Unit
Carol Gossett's Gingerbread Man Units
Jan Brett's Gingerbread Baby Masks
Jan Brett's Gingerbread Coloring Page
All the cute graphics on this page are from: