The Gingerbread Man

For the Holidays, I set up materials for the kids to create a Gingerbread Bakery. 

They loved it!

We started reading many different versions of The Gingerbread Man. We are focusing on story comprehension. They are identifying the characters, setting, problem and solution. They are also working on retelling the stories.

One day, we had a couple surprise visiters come to our class! Two gingerbread men named Candy and Mingy! 

One day we came in and found this massage!

The kids created posters and taped them all over our school so that if anyone found them, they would bring them to us! They knew they had to write neatly, use spaces, write every sound they could hear in each word, spell sight words correctly and draw a good picture in order for others to be able to read their poster. They all tried their hardest!

The signs caught the attention of many other classes! Many told us that they were also keeping an eye out for our gingerbread men. 

The next morning, I showed the kids this picture on our promethium board that came from the security camera right outside our classroom! It shows our Gingerbread Men in the empty hallway!

They were beside themselves with glee! The kids decided to create traps. We had a discussion about what a good trap needed to do. It needed: 1) Something to lure the gingerbread men in and 2) A way to trap them and keep them from running away. They started creating plans. Some even used our art studio to make plans. 

 

Materials were gathered and the work began! They were so engaged in the process!

We couldn't use real candy as bait because we didn't want to attract mice so they made their own and we sprayed the "candy" with peppermint spray to trick them!

The next step was setting them up!

The traps caught Mrs. Holton...

but no gingerbread men. 

The kids wrote letters to the gingerbread men saying how much they missed them. We taped them all over the school hoping they would find them!

Mrs. Rigg's class had been very obsessed with finding our gingerbread friends for us! They were looking everywhere! After they had made some gingerbread houses, guess who showed up in their room! The GBM had a note for them.

Now our friends are back safe and sound! What a wonderful, magical adventure we all had with so many authentic reading and writing opportunities, along with many 21st century learning skills being practiced as they planned, collaborated and built their traps! This is why I enjoy teaching this age so much! Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.