Gingerbread Baby Come join us for some fun ways to learn about this folktale.

Introducing the Story
Our work with Gingerbread Baby began with a discussion
of what the children knew about the genre of folktales.

They knew that folktales began in the oral tradition. They also
knew that one can find different versions of these stories.

I introduced two more folktale elements for them to look for in the story.

1. Repetition - words, phrases, or sentences that are repeated throughout the story.
2. Cumulative aspects - something or someone who continues to be added as the story progresses.

As they listened, the children recognized the "Catch me if you can" repetition and the cumulative characters in the story.

Comparing Versions
Making a connection between oral and written retellings
of a folktale was the next step in our exploration of this book.

To help the children understand a more traditional version of the story, we performed a Gingerbread Boy Readers' Theater.
The class was divided in half. I appointed a "director" for each group to assign parts and lead practice. Then each group performed their "interpretation" of this version for the other.

Using a Venn diagram, the children were then asked
to compare Jan Brett's version with The Gingerbread Boy.

Gingerbread Ornaments
A perfect extension of our work was Teresa's mom's plan to make gingerbread ornaments with us!

After we painted them, we were careful to put strings on right away, so they couldn't escape like the Ginger characters in the stories!

A very special "thank you" to Teresa's mom!

Here is a recipe for another type of Gingerbread Man Ornament from Annie's Gingerbread Page. 1/2 c. cinnamon 1/2 c. applesauce 2 Tablespoons glue Mix together and roll out onto wax paper. Use a gingerbread cookie cutter to cut out the shape. Poke a hole on the top with a straw Let air dry for a couple of days. Then you can paint them if you like, but the smell is wonderful!!!! This makes approx. 6 ornaments.

Gingerbread Baby Resources
Gingerbread Baby Bookmarks
Make a Gingerbread Baby House
Gingerbread Baby Board Game
Animals of Gingerbread Baby Masks
Gingerbread Baby Unit
Debbie Coats uses Gingerbread Baby in her
Differentiated Learning Unit

A search at Jan Brett's Site
will yield lots more Gingerbread Baby resources!

To learn more about Jan Brett and her book Gingerbread Baby, see our work for the Internet project Stories Across America

More Gingerbread Resources
Marci McGowan's
Gingerbread Gems

Kidzone's
Gingerbread Man Thematic Unit

Virtual Vine's
The Gingerbread Man

Pam Elliott's
Gingerbread Unit

Teaching is a Work of Heart's
Gingerbread Man Unit
and
Gingerbread Man Unit - Classroom Lesson and Ideas

Kindergarten Connection's
Gingerbread Integrated Unit
Not just for Kindergarten!

Annie's Gingerbread Page

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