Fun Day - Gingerbread

It was all about Gingerbread today!

We started with a little story rhyme -
I'm a little gingerbread boy - boys bow
I'm a little gingerbread girl - girls curtsy
I can jump (jump) And I can twirl (twirl)
I have raisins for my eyes (point to eyes)
And bright red buttons just this size (point to buttons down chest)
I have a mouth, it looks like this (point to smiling mouth)
I can even blow a kiss (blow kiss)
I'm warm and tasty (rubbing belly)
But don't eat me (shake head and finger)
Hang me on your Christmas tree! (Put hand over head)

We then made our own gingerbread men to hang on our tree. I mixed up a dough
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup cinnamon
1/3 cup salt
1/3 cup water
The kids helped roll it out and used a gingerbread man/girl cookie cutter to put on the baking sheet. We baked them at 350 for about 25 minutes

Making the gingerbread men reminded us of the story of the Gingerbread Man. We told the story through song and the tune "Wheels on the Bus"

The gingerbread man ran through the town, through the town, through the town
The gingerbread man ran through the town singing "You'll never catch me!"

He ran away from a cow, from a cow, from a cow... (repeat) Singing "You'll never catch me"
He ran away from a sheep...
He ran away from a dog...

Then he came to a fox, to a fox, to a fox
The fox sat on a box and said "You can trust me"

Then he ate him yes-sir-ee, yes-sir-ee, yes-sir-ee... (repeat) singing "That was really yummy!"

The kids had fun recounting the story. But that fox that ate that cookie reminded us of the game "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar" and played that game practicing beats-

We finally concluded that nobody stole the cookies, but if there was a fox here, he would steal them! And we talked about how it isn't good to steal (or lie, if you do steal cookies you should tell your mom). This led into how we should act, be nice and giving. That reminded me of the story "George the Giving Gingerbread Man" This is a story my mom told when we were kids and it's your basic story, but everyone he comes across he helps (a little girl crying who had fallen down, he hides in a  house and sees someone left their shoes out so puts them away, cleans the dishes that are sitting out, etc.) He always leaves singing "Run Run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm George the Giving Gingerbread Man!" The kids thought it was so fun.

We made our way into the kitchen to decorate our George the Giving Gingerbread Men. I had pictures of eyes, nose, mouth, buttons, etc and when they found a match, they got to draw that on their picture. They were encouraged to take George home and do nice things for their family, and leave George so they could know he was there and then do something nice for someone else.

 George needed a house, so decorated Gingerbread houses (made from graham crackers)

The song we learned for Caroling Day was Up on the Housetop :)

And if you're ever wanting to do a bigger theme of gingerbread, these two websites have LOTS and LOTS of ideas-

http://www.littlegiraffes.com/gingerbread.html

http://stepbystepcc.com/gingerbread.html