Gingerbread fun

I have to admit Gingerbread Man week is one of my all time favorites.  I just love the little guy!  We read so many different versions of the story.  We kept a chart all week to compare the characters, refrain, and ending.  Most of the story ended with the Gingerbread character getting tricked and eaten by a sly fox (or coyote).  Only one got away...ask your child to tell you about which one made it out safely. 

We kept a Gingerbread journal to write about the ending of the stories. 

 

 

We wrote about which story we liked the best. 

We wondered why the Gingerbread Man could not cross the river.  What would happen if he did get wet?  We made our predictions and tested them out.  We put a gingerbread cookie in a cup of water and watched and waited.  We noticed that he floated at first, but then he sank and crumbled.  Guess he really didn't have much of a choice but to trust the fox. 

 

We explored items that would sink and float to research what we could use as a floatation device for our gingerbread man.  First we tested lots of items in the room to see if we could determine what makes an item sink/float.  We found that items that were heavy tended to sink, as did any item that could fill up with water.  We noticed that whole crayons would float, but broken crayons would sink.  We used what we learned to decide what building materials we would use to create a boat to get the cookie across the water.  We could use anything in the room.  Some of the items chosen were Legos, foil, cups, and popsicle sticks.  We tested them out by putting a cookie on the boat and floating them across a tub of water. 

 

We decorated Gingerbread cookies and put them in the cafeteria oven to bake/warm.  When we went to pick them up, they had run away!!!  Someone must have opened the oven too soon.  We were so disappointed.  The kids decided to create and post Wanted/Lost posters throughout the school so no one would eat our cookies.  Mrs. Suggs accidentally left her walkie talkie in our room when she came in to give Mrs. Karnes something.  A little while later we heard Mrs. Hamilton calling for her on the walkie.  She had found the gingerbread cookies running wild.  They were chasing them everywhere!! We were so excited and on the edge of our seats waiting to see if she was able to wrangle them all up.  She and Mrs. Suggs showed up a few minutes later with the cookies!  We were over the moon!  We ate them quickly so they could not get away again.  We graphed which part of the cookie we ate first.  The head was the most popular part. 

 

 

 

Here are a few gingerbread man goodies.