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Monday, January 2, 2017

The Gingerbread Man


Using the story of the Gingerbread Man seemed like a great seasonal fit without being too Christmas-y. Yes I know, you're seeing this just after the New Year. My blog posts are several weeks behind my actual storytimes. In any case, gingerbread men looked like something I could easily make an art project out of, so I did. 

Outline: 

Opening song: Put your hands up high

Opening rhyme: Hands go up

Story: The Library Gingerbread Man by Dottie Enderle



Song: Five Gingerbread Men

Five gingerbread men lying on a tray,
One jumped up and ran away,
Shouting “Catch me, catch me, catch me if you can…
I run really fast, I’m the gingerbread man!
The gingerbread man, the gingerbread man,
I run really fast, I’m the gingerbread man!”

Four gingerbread men lying on a tray,
One jumped up and ran away,
Shouting “Catch me, catch me, catch me if you can…
I run really fast, I’m the gingerbread man!
The gingerbread man, the gingerbread man,
I run really fast, I’m the gingerbread man!”

Three gingerbread men lying on a tray,
One jumped up and ran away,
Shouting “Catch me, catch me, catch me if you can…
I run really fast, I’m the gingerbread man!
The gingerbread man, the gingerbread man,
I run really fast, I’m the gingerbread man!”

Two gingerbread men lying on a tray,
One jumped up and ran away,
Shouting “Catch me, catch me, catch me if you can…
I run really fast, I’m the gingerbread man!
The gingerbread man, the gingerbread man,
I run really fast, I’m the gingerbread man!”

Just one gingerbread man lying on a tray
He jumped up and ran away
Shouting “Catch me, catch me, catch me if you can…
I run really fast, I’m the gingerbread man!
The gingerbread man, the gingerbread man,
I run really fast, I’m the gingerbread man!”

No gingerbread men lying on a tray,
They all jumped up and ran away
Oh how I wish they had stayed with me to play
Next time I’ll eat them up before they run away
The gingerbread men, the gingerbread men,
Next time I’ll eat them up before they run away!
Next time I’ll eat them up before they run away!

Source:  

Story: The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst




Song: The Gingerbread Man
Tune: "The Muffin Man"

Oh, do you know the Gingerbread Man,
Gingerbread Man, Gingerbread Man?
Oh, do you know the Gingerbread Man,
Who ran and ran and ran?
He said, "Catch me if you can,
If you can, if you can."
He said, "Catch me if you can,"
Then ran and ran and ran.

I can run like the Gingerbread Man.
Gingerbread Man, Gingerbread Man.
I can run like the Gingerbread Man,
Now catch me if you can.

Source: Preschool Education 

Activity: Coding with ASCII Binary Alphabet and red & green gingerbread men

Source: ASCII Binary Alphabet PDF provided by Little Bins for Little Hands

Craft time: Mosaic Gingerbread Man

Final Story: The Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieska & Lane Smith


Goodbye Song

How it actually went: 

This was another week with pretty strong attendance. It makes me really happy to see the number of regular kids grow each week. 

To start off I used a traditional version of the story to give a quick overview, and make sure everyone was familiar with the story of The Gingerbread Man. I did not read the book word for word, I just used the pictures to show how the gingerbread man was made and all of the various characters that he ran from before finally being tricked by the fox. We talked about how there was some variety in the different versions. Sometimes he gets eaten, sometimes not. Most versions show the fox tricking him while crossing a river, but I found at least two versions where the fox pretends to be hard of hearing and urges the gingerbread man to come closer and closer before gobbling him up. 

Our first fractured version was The Library Gingerbread Man, which I found particularly amusing as the gingerbread man runs through the various Dewey call numbers. Some of the kids in my group were already familiar with this one from school. 

Five Little Gingerbread Men went over well, and the kids picked up on it quickly even though it was a new song for all of us. 

Our second story and song both went really well too. I usually try to have more than one song between books, and in fact, and had planned for it, but sometimes if the songs are longer I'll cut one for fear that I will run over on time. Crafting tends to take children a while, so I like to have lots of time built in for that. 

Something new that I tried this week, but that I think I will continue trying was using the ASCII Binary Alphabet to introduce some basic coding. I have seen this used before for making beaded jewelry, and thought why not try using it to spell out a word on the white board? Because the gingerbread man is so long, I opted for the simpler, cookie. I used our die cut of a gingerbread man to cut out enough red and green cookies, and with the help of the kids, we spelled cookie in binary. 

I really had no idea how this was going to go over, but the kids were getting into it. I gave them a sheet with the code on it, and called out, "What do we need for C?" and so on and so forth. For their part, the kids enthusiastically called out "1000011!" So yay! for basic coding! 

After this we moved on to craft time. I typically opt for open-ended projects, but tonight's craft was a little more directed. Nevertheless, the kids did a great job of expressing their individual creativity. 


I did not get any pictures of their creations, but this was my model. Trust me when I say, the kids did a much better job. 

Finally we wrapped things up with The Stinky Cheese Man and our goodbye song. All in all it was another successful mix of fairy tales and STEAM concepts. In theory, this week was an art week, but as you can see it's not unusual for me to mix multiple concepts in the same storytime. Really, it makes sense to do this because everything is so interconnected. As I continue with this, I'll probably drop the idea that one week is Science, the next Technology, and so on, and I'll just introduce whichever concepts work best with whatever story we're reading. 

As always, I welcome any comments and suggestions from you if you've tried something similar. I love learning about how others take these same ideas and make them their own. 

*Disclaimer* This post contains links to Amazon.com, but I am not currently set up with an affiliate account, so I do not receive any compensation for any sales that may result.

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