run, run as fast as you can! gingerbread fun for Littles!

Our Grand Lives
2 hours ago
8 min read

Thursday, December 11, 2025

Such good advice, right???

The classic tale of The Gingerbread Man

has been charming children for generations.

It’s playful, repetitive, and full of opportunities for learning through hands-on activities.

Whether you’re a GRAND, like us, a parent, a teacher, or a caregiver,

pairing a story with creative crafts and themed activities

can turn a simple read-aloud into a memorable experience!

Plus, it provides extra festive fun during the holiday season!

In today’s post, Laurie shares our December choice for

Our Monthly Story Time

and then we’re sharing a few of our favorite ways to celebrate the story, too!

This monthly feature has quickly become

one of our favorite posts each month!

Since the beginning of the school year,

we’ve shared a book each month that we simply love!

We’ve also shared reading strategies along the way,

ones we’ve used over the years with young Littles!

You can find our past stories and ideas by clicking the following links:

Back to School – The Kissing Hand

September – Ten Apples Up on Top

October – Go Away, Big Green Monster

November – Turkey Trouble

There’s no better gift we can give any Little

than sharing a love of reading with them!

During our years of teaching, we both (Laurie and Laura) reached a point where, due to changing demographics, we were not able to celebrate Christmas anymore. For some reason, December became the month of The Gingerbread Man in our kindergarten rooms! With so many versions that led to comparing and contrasting, this classic fairy tale became an anchor of writing, reading, graphing, adding, counting, crafting and playing. One year my students even did a gingerbread man play for families!

One of our favorite things to do these days as GRANDS,

is to share books and stories we love with our own Littles!

Having my Littles on many snowy days this month, we revisited the story (Little D has loved it since she was 2) and enjoyed some activities.

This was the version I read:

The Gingerbread Man

No specific reason I chose this one - I think my Littles just liked the cover the best!

The Gingerbread Man is such a well-known folktale and there are countless versions available with variations of the storyline offered, too! This makes it the perfect story to read over and over again. In kindergarten, we’d read a different version every day during our study, and the kids loved to listen to see how the story changed each time! They became quite good detectives!

This is fun to do with our own Littles, too!

Whenever possible, read different versions of the same story or folktale to them!

You can find many at your local library, at secondhand stores or on Youtube.

Here’s a few of our favorite versions!

And Littles LOVE to giggle over fun variations like these, too!

Comparing and contrasting is a comprehension skill that kindergarten and first grade teachers spend a lot of time introducing and developing! You can encourage your Littles by asking a few simple questions after you’ve read two or more versions!

Are the characters the same or different in the stories?

Is the gingerbread character a man? A boy? A girl? Other?

Where does the story take place in each version?

What are some things that are the same (or different) between two versions?

Which version is your favorite? Why?

All of these experiences build comprehension and understanding and further develop speaking skills and confidence in themselves, too!! Plus, Littles LOVE to share their thoughts and ideas and they LOVE a captive audience (YOU), too!

Below you'll find our ideas for projects, movement activities, STEM challenges and more —perfect for the holiday season or any time you want to bring a sweet story to life!

Creating Our Own Gingerbread Men!

First I cut two gingerbread man shapes out of a file folder, because I wanted a thicker paper and a tannish color.

Then I collected different decorating elements I had in my cupboard and poured some of each on paper plates (Smarties, mini M&Ms, chocolate chips, marshmallows and sprinkles.)

Be prepared! Some will probably get sampled!

We also needed Karo Syrup, paint brushes and markers.

When I made these in school, I used the dark Karo Syrup to give the project a browner tinge, but I had the light syrup at home so I used that. (Keep it simple!)

The Karo Syrup works as the glue. Paint it on and your decorations will stick!

The Littles had so much fun. They filled their G-men with much character!

Our GRAND Tip! They are very sticky and take about 2 days to fully dry when done. We put them in the middle of the table so the dog would not sniff them out and eat them. I walked into the kitchen and the cat was sitting there pulling decorations off.

I’ve got to be honest about the end result…

These Karo Syrup gingerbread men are a tough “art project” to display. They are very heavy and when vertical can lose decorations not securely glued. Sometimes a project is about the process and not the final product! And... that's OKAY! If a project happens to slip into the trash instead of onto the wall, don't worry!! This will in NO WAY diminish your Littles’ excitement!

A Few More Activities We Love!

❉󠀪 Acting out the story with plastic animals and a paper gingerbread man! No matter the story, it’s always a fave!

❉󠀪 A little gingerbread man surprise at lunch to make it extra special!

❉󠀪 We also moved and grooved to a favorite of my students when I was teaching - Jack Hartmann’s The Gingerbread Man. Little D and P loved it, too! I found it on Spotify, but here it is on YouTube.

Laura and her Littles echo Laurie! It’s a favorite for us all!

❉󠀪 Sometimes the simpler the better, right? A simple, but highly engaging activity with toddlers and preschoolers? Make gingerbread men cookies out of play dough and cookie cutters or stamp cookie cutters in paint!

❉󠀪 A blast from the past! A favorite STEM (science, technology, engineering & math) activity from my kindergarten days! The kids paired up and glued a paper gingerbread man to a small block. They had to create a bridge between 2 chairs about 1 foot apart (I measured) that the gingerbread man could cross the river on, using only marshmallows and toothpicks! I placed their gingerbread man on the bridge. If the bridge collapsed, it was back to the drawing board!

And Here's Two More Ideas from Laura!

❉󠀪 In my kindergarten class, the students worked in groups each December to discover why the gingerbread man (or boy or girl or whoever) never wanted to cross the river! Recently, I repeated this experiment with Little L (and my own Little P had to join in, too)!

Just like I did years ago with my small groups, I gave Little L and Little P a gingerbread cookie and a bowl of water to replicate the river. They had to smell and lick the gingerbread man to make sure he was real! Such smart cookies!

After that, it didn’t take Little L long before Little L figured out why the gingerbread man was willing to join the fox (or wolf) to cross the river! Eventually, their gingerbread man disintegrated into crumbles when it was in water! So sad!

That discovery made Little L (just like my kindergartners!) curious so we followed up by testing other foods/items to see which would disintegrate or not!

Can you tell from the photo above,

what one of the foods we tested besides our gingerbread man??

❉󠀪 Little L had fun designing her own Gingerbread Man! Beforehand, I had cut a gingerbread man from sandpaper and then put some fun items in a muffin tin - googly eyes, buttons, pipe cleaners I’d cut up, pony beads and pom poms. Little L (and I) spent time adding eyes, hair, buttons, fingers, smiles and more to our gingerbread men.

HOWEVER, we did not attach any of these items permanently! We simply laid the items on top of the sandpaper. When we were done, we took a pretend photo of our creations, dumped the supplies, sorted them and then made another new creation!

Of course, making gingerbread houses is a favorite holiday traditions

for many families

as is going on a hunt for the missing gingerbread man!

We’ve both been known to go on a hunt or two in our day!

If this is part of your family’s yearly activities, PLEASE SHARE!

There’s a spot near the end of this post to leave a message!

We learn so much from your comments!

Don’t be surprised if we share more Gingerbread activities this week

on Facebook/Instagram

We’d love to have you follow us on either site… or even both!

Before we leave today’s topic,

Laura has to share this recent find…

Trader Joe’s had this giant Gingerbread Dude cookie on display

when I stopped in earlier this week!

They are all wearing different colored shorts, too!

I just had to bring one home with me and I knew Little L would love his purple shorts!

Look how big he is next to our friend Buddy!

I have to wonder what kind of adventures these two might be planning!

Hmmmm!

We’ll be back NEXT WEEK with more holiday fun to share!

Please consider subscribing to our blog, so you don’t miss out!

Thanks so much for joining us today!

We’ll leave you with a bit of teacher humor today…

The timeless tale of The Gingerbread Man becomes even more magical when paired with a few creative activities. Whether you're building bridges, decorating your own gingerbread men, or comparing story events, these ideas encourage imagination, problem solving, and joyful memories.

Have fun—and see if you can catch that crafty cookie!