Gingerbread Lesson Plan for Preschool and Homeschool

Even the youngest children associate the sweet spicy smells of gingerbread with the holiday season. This lesson plan is designed to engage alls the senses of preschool and homeschool students.

Gingerbread Paper Cut Outs

Cut out gingerbread shapes from cardboard or poster board using a cookie cutter as a stencil. To make the gingerbread cut outs scented, brush them with a light layer of glue and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar or use bits of cinnamon sticks and whole cloves as decoration. Let students decorate with items of a variety of textures, including pieces of fabric, google eyes, pipe cleaners, and pieces of ribbon. You can also make "frosting" out of equal parts of flour, sugar, and water with a little white tempera paint for coloring to pipe onto the gingerbread cookies. (fine motor skills, five senses)

Gingerbread People Match

Cut several gingerbread shapes out of brown cardstock or posterboard. Make a pair with two red circle buttons, a pair with three green triangle buttons, a pair with two blue circle buttons, and so on. Mix the gingerbread people up and let children match the gingerbread people that are the same or let them sort the gingerbread people by similarities-all circle buttons, all red buttons, etc... (math skills: matching and sorting)

Gingerbread Cookies

Even though they don't last as long, children love making their own gingerbread cookies even more than the craft types. Get them involved from start to finish, by letting them participate in mixing the dough and icing, using a cookie cutter to cut out their cookies, and decorating the cookies themselves. To save time, you can use dough from the refrigerator section of your grocery store and premade frosting, or order unfrosted cookies and frosting from the bakery section of your local store, or you can use this gingerbread cookie recipe and royal icing recipe for piped icing. Provide gumdrops, red hots, colored sugar sprinkles, and other small candies for decorating. (fine motor skills, following directions, life skills)

Gingerbread Songs

Mother Goose's Gingerbread Man rhyme and Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar are both classic rhymes to learn with this lesson. Another song to sing, is this one, titled Watch Me Run by Elizabeth Scofield from PreschoolExpress.com. It is sung to the tune of Jingle Bells.(language arts-rhyming, classic rhymes, music)

Watch me run, watch me run
All around the room.
I'm the little Gingerbread Kid.
See me zoom, zoom, zoom,
Running here, running there,
Running fast and slow.
I'm the little Gingerbread Kid.
See how I can go!