Welcome to my Gingerbread Page!  Below you will find fun gingerbread ideas, art projects, recipes and a Great recipe for making Gingerbread Playdough!  (My Kindergartners LOVE the way this playdough smells!  I hope you'll enjoy it too!)

The first week in December my Kindergartners and I create a GINGERBREAD DOORWAY! We usually make this on the first school day in December and enjoy it until the winter vacation arrives!  It is very festive and brightens up the hallway and gets everyone in the Christmas Spririt!

Instructions--Find a cute, plain gingerbread pattern to trace. (I run mine through the copy machine on brown paper)  Give each child a gingerbread pattern to cut out.  I supply each table with different candies that are light weight to glue on their gingerbread man.  I also use this time to encourage my students to make patterns around their gingerbread man with the candies.  I set the timer for about 15 minutes and when it goes off the kids stop and the gingerbread men go to the counter top to dry.  This usually takes all day (sometimes I let them dry overnight).  Then we hang them up around our door frame.  This is a CUTE, FAST and FUN project! Candy Suggestions:  M&M's , Marshmallows, Rasins, Red hots, and other small candies (I have also used white tempra paint to let them "Frost" lines on their gingerbread boys/girs.)

Christmas Tree Gingerbread Display Directions:  Make the same Gingerbread Kids as listed above but instead of arranging them around the door frame, arrange them in rows to make a Christmas Tree!  This is a very cute idea taken from an old primary issue of The Mailbox Magazine.  I would suggest making smaller gingerbread kids in order to have a tree that is not Too large.  See example below.

Gingerbread Play-Dough 1 Cup flour 1/2 Cup salt 2 tsp. cream of tartar 1 cup water 1 tsp. vegetable oil Spices--Cinnamon, Allspice, Ginger, Nutmeg *Green and Red food coloring to make Brown (optional--the spices usually   give the dough a good Brown color.) DIRECTIONS-- 1.  Mix the dry ingredients.  Experiment with the spices until you get      a scent and color that you like. 2.  Mix water and oil together first and then add them to the dry ingredients      and stir. 3.  In a pot, cook the mixture for three to five minutes on low/medium, stirring           constantly. 4.  The dough will start to pull away from the sides of the pot and      stick together in a large ball.  I take it out of the pan when I see a VERY faint      brown skin on the dough one each side when I flip it. 5.  Take the dough out of the pan and knead the dough until it becomes soft       and smooth. 6.  Allow the dough to cool and then store it in an airtight container. Total time to make dough:  10 minutes.  This is a very quick and easy recipe and the dough turns out great!  1 batch makes about the same amount as you would find in one small tub of store bought playdough.

Visit Jan Brett's Web Site for WONDERFUL ideas to use with her story The Gingerbread Baby. (You can even print out iron-on transfers of the Gingerbread Baby and Story Characters!) CLICK HERE

Click on the books to preview or order these fun Gingerbread stories (just click your back button when you want to return to this page)

A Fabulous TWIST on the story of The Gingerbread Man!

Take a peek inside The Gingerbread House for Learning Center ideas!

*~NEW!~*

~~Ten Little Gingerbread Friends~~

I copy this poem on chart paper and decorate it with 10 small gingerbread shapes.  It becomes part of our morning opening for the month of December.  I also die cut 10 gingerbread man shapes, number them 1-10, laminate them and tape them to popcicle sticks.  I add magnetic tape to the backs and have them on our chalkboard to use with song.  Each day the leader uses the pointer to read the song to us.  If he or she gets "stuck" on any of the numbers we back up and sing the song from the beginning until the leader is able to name the number.  This gives me a quick assessment on the students ability to recongize numbers.  I use the magnetic gingerbread men on the board to have the students name numbers in random order and to put mixed up gingerbread in correct number order.  I do the same activity for other months as well.  January~*~Snowmen and February~*~Hearts 1 Little, 2 Little, 3 Little Gingerbread, 4 little, 5 Little, 6 Little Gingerbread, 7 Little, 8 Little, 9 Little Gingerbread, 10 Little Gingerbread Friends! *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 11 Little, 12 Little, 13 Little Gingerbread, 14 Little, 15 Little, 16 Little Gingerbread, 17 Little, 18 Little, 19 Little Gingerbread, 20 Little Gingerbread Friends!

Click HERE to visit a site full of ideas (including a reproducible for a cookie graph) to use with the story The Gingerbread Man.

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Gingerbread  Man                         Stir  a  bowl  of  gingerbread, Smooth  and  spicy  brown Roll  it  with  a  rolling  pin                     Up  and  up  and  down. With  a  cookie  cutter, Make  some  little  men. Put  them  in  the  oven Till  half  past  ten! ~Poem from Dee Dee Polk Elementary Baton Rouge, LA~