Kindergarten Gingerbread Man

This is one of my favorite lessons of the season, mostly because of the joy the kids get out of the story. The way it worked out was kind of a flook - I couldn't find the actual book, so I made a Power Point of the story using clip art as pictures. This ended up working out even better than the book, because I added a few extra "custom" parts. Here's how I tell the story (each line is a new slide):

The Gingerbread Man: Retold by (You)

Once upon a time there was a little old lady and a little old man who lived in a little old cottage.

The little old woman decided to make a gingerbread man for her little old husband for Christmas.

She mixed the ingredients.

She rolled out the dough.

She cut out a gingerbread man shape.

Then she put it in the oven.

The kitchen smelled SO good as the cookie baked. The little old man was very excited. "Is it done yet?" he kept asking.

Finally, he couldn't wait any longer. He peeked into the oven...

And out jumped the gingerbread man! He ran right out the door! "Stop! We want to eat you!" they yelled.

But the gingerbread man kept on running. He shouted, "Run, run, just as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man."

**At this point, I have the students read the "You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man" part whenever it comes up.**

On the path he saw a dog, who happened to be very hungry. "Stop, I want to eat you!" shouted the dog.

But the gingerbread man kept on running. He shouted, "Run, run, just as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man."

He ran through (your school's town). "Stop! We want to eat you!" shouted the townspeople.

**I used a photo of our town I found on our chamber of commerce's website... someday I'd like to take my own.**

But the gingerbread man kept on running. He shouted, "Run, run, just as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man."

He ran through (your school). "Stop!" yelled the students. "Stop!" yelled the teachers. "Stop!" yelled (your principal).

**The kids LOVE this slide. "That's OUR school!" they yell.**

But the gingerbread man kept on running. He shouted, "Run, run, just as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man."

He came to a forest where he saw many animals. "Stop!" yelled the raccoons. "Stop!" yelled the deer. "Stop!" yelled the squirrels.

But the gingerbread man kept on running. He shouted, "Run, run, just as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man."

Soon the gingerbread man came to a wide river. "Oh, no! What am I going to do?!" cried the gingerbread man.

A sly fox came along. "I will take you across the river," he offered. "But you will eat me!" said the gingerbread man. "No I won't. I've already had lunch. Grab onto my tail," the fox insisted. And the gingerbread man did.

But the river was too deep. "Oh, no! My body is getting wet!" cried the gingerbread man.

"Well, climb onto my back and you will be safe," said the fox. And the gingerbread man did.

But the river was still too deep. "Oh, no! My feet are getting wet!" cried the gingerbread man.

"Well, climb onto my head and you will be safe," said the fox. And the gingerbread man did.

But the river was still too deep. "Oh, no! My toes are getting wet!" cried the gingerbread man.

"Well, climb onto my nose and you will be safe," said the fox. And the gingerbread man did.

Suddenly, the fox snapped his head back and gobbled the gingerbread man right up!

The End

I would be happy to e-mail you the Power Point with clip art if you contact me. It's not exactly pretty - but it does the trick. I have dreams of illustrating it myself (or at least making a gingerbread man that doesn't always have a white box around him), but we all know how much free time art teachers have. : )

After the story, we complete a crayon-resist gingerbread man - all wrapped up in a lovely 35-minute session.

Texture Ornaments

Being December, I'm still on the holiday kick and want to share a simple kindergarten lesson that incorporates one of the most difficult elements of art for little ones to grasp - texture. I have a classroom set of fiskars rubbing plates, but textures around the room or samples of every-day textures would work as well. I give students a circle stencil to trace, then they rub the texture onto the circle with a crayon (I show them how to use the side of a peeled one). I also had pre-cut construction paper bows for the tops to dress them up a bit - they could probably cut and trace the bows themselves. On the bows, I wrote each student's name with a Sharpie as they turned them in. At the time, I worked at a small school where there were only two classes of kindergarten, so I made a tree out of bulletin board paper and hung them up as my classroom tree. It was a cute little display (even with the electric panel in the middle)! Since it was a quick lesson, we had time to read a book together and talk a lot about texture to make sure they grasped the concept (30 min total).

Art Classroom Tip: Elements of Art


Speaking of the elements of art, I love having these posted in my room. I got them from United Art & Education. The thing I love about them is the simple definition included with the word, as well as the visual definition in the way the element is written. Since I have "double art" with my 3rd graders, we get very in-depth discussing the elements. As we review artwork as inspiration for our projects, I simply ask the students to tell me about the artwork using the elements vocabulary. Then I call on students who raise their hands, and they surprise me every time with how critical of an eye they have! At the beginning of the year, we review the elements, but I think allowing the students to tell ME about the artwork allows them to progressively cement the information in their minds.

Paper Woven Stockings/The Beginning

This is the kind of thing you'd think I would start in the summer with those 3 months off, and really, I wish I would have. However, I have only recently discovered the wealth of wonderful art lessons that can be found through fellow art teacher's blogs, and I am hoping that this blog will be equally useful to someone else. I am still learning the ins and outs, so if you have just stumbled upon this humble blog, please bear with me.

I'd like to start this blog with a timely lesson for the season - paper weaving stockings. I love to do paper weaving because I find that some of my kids who think they "aren't good at art," find ease with this project. The way I teach this lesson, there is a lot of prep, but I find it worthwhile since it is a "one-class wonder" (35 minutes - 2nd grade). I pre cut the "looms" by folding a few sheets of construction paper in half and cutting at each inch on the cutting board, as well as cutting the strips.

I give students a 9x12" red loom, a regular 9x12" red paper, and a stencil for the foot part of the stocking. I instruct students to trace and cut the foot first, and then tackle the weaving. I've taught weaving a couple ways - this time I did the simple "over/under" technique, but my mentor teacher taught me a way where the students label each strip on the loom either an X or an O - then go under the X's the first time, under the O's the second, under the X's the third, etc... but while I found this to be effective, it was time consuming and many students can weave without it. While students are weaving, I am circulating the room around and around helping students who need help and pushing the strips to the top of the loom. When they finish weaving, they glue the "tabs"(the ends of the green strips), glue the foot on the bottom, and draw the stitching in the heel and toe.


And for those students who do not celebrate Christmas, I have an alternative "paper weaving T-shirt" lesson ready to go that also uses the red looms:

Art Classroom Tip: Name tags

For as long as I can come up with them, I'd like to include a "classroom management" idea with each lesson. Today, the idea is not a unique one, but a great one for teachers like me who teach at multiple schools. Pre-typed name tags are not always a time saver, but they certainly save me a lot of hassle. I have my name tags organized in computer folders by grade level and then each class list file is named with the grade and teacher. I keep them on a jump drive so I always have the most updated list no matter where I am. The name tag includes the student name with last initial, grade, teacher, and school, so if projects get mixed up, I know exactly who it goes to and what school. Projects are ready for art shows and look just as nice and finished in the hallway at school. I usually pre-staple name tags to project paper for K-2, so I never have to worry about no-name papers. The 3rd-5th graders cut and staple or glue their own name tag to finished projects when they are complete, and they stay in table folders in the meantime (more on that later).