December is here!! I am so excited to share what Emmett, Lillian and I have been up to!! I put together a few gingerbread activities for preschool, including a FUN counting FREEBIE. Take a look!
There are SO many good gingerbread books out there for preschoolers, it is hard to choose. I will say, this selection of Jan Brett books is what I have in my collection and we focused especially on the Gingerbread Baby. There are many more on my wish list!!
I set up a little STEM challenge for Emmett immediately following the story, Gingerbread Baby. These are Picasso Tiles and a little gingerbread felt ornament that I got from Target a few years ago. I challenged him to create his own house for the Gingerbread Baby and he got right to work.
One thing I love about teaching preschoolers is watching their thinking process. Emmett immediately made a standard house with a roof, added a chimney and called it a day. Then he realized he wanted a “working” chimney.
He took his original roof and chimney apart and redesigned it so that it actually had a pathway into his Gingerbread house. Then he collected some small toys to test it out. He was so proud of himself!
I’m happy to share the table tent STEM station signs with you. To download a copy, press the button below. Simply print a fold in half for a little table tent!
Next, he headed straight for the sensory bin! Everything that I used in this bin I already had stashed in the house from other activities. This one is dry pinto beans, large buttons, gingerbread themed foam stickers (Michael’s), sparkly Christmas balls, and various bowls and utensils.
Lillian loved this bin. She had a great time collecting similar items in the containers. I’m still finding those sparkly balls around the house!
While Lillian was busy with the sensory bin, Emmett and I practiced counting syllables. He is just starting to develop his phonemic awareness, so we did this activity together.
I designed the gingerbread cookie picture cards so that 6 would belong in each category, 1 syllable, 2 syllables or 3 syllables. But Emmett made a couple of the cards up for discussion. For example, he called the “tree” a “Christmas tree” and put it with the three syllable words instead of the one syllable words. We also talked about whether we wanted to call the gift a gift or a present. Emmett decided it was a gift and put it with the one syllable words.
If you’d like to use this Gingerbread Syllable Sort with your preschoolers, you can find it in my shop by clicking the image below.
After syllables, we practiced counting gum drops on these adorable gingerbread cards. The picture cards depict numbers 1 – 20 and there are three versions of the recording sheets, 1 – 10, 11 – 20, and 1 – 20.
We spread the cards out face down on the table to make a draw pile but you can also put them in a sensory bin for the kids to pull from. I gave Emmett gum drops to manipulate in the tens frame to represent each number he found. He was very particular about wanting to use only green and red gum drops like in the picture which was so funny. If you’re not interested in using the tens frame portion of this activity, you can hang the cards around the room and have your preschoolers search for all the numbers, tracing them as they find them.
If you’d like to use the Gingerbread House Counting Activity with your preschoolers, you can find it in my shop by clicking the image below!
The last gingerbread activity I want to share with you is a FREE counting activity that you can play with or without dice, depending on your preschooler’s readiness. If you choose to play with dice, have your preschooler roll the dice for each type of candy at the bottom of the page. After each turn, use that amount of candy on the gingerbread house. If you want to give your preschooler a little bit more independence, let them decorate the gingerbread house however they like, then count the number of each candy that they used.
Emmett chose to play with dice this round, which was perfect for him. He had so much fun with this one! If you’d like to download this activity for your preschooler, you can find it in my shop for FREE. Just click the image below.
That wraps up my list of preschool gingerbread activities for you!! I hope you are able to find some fun inspiration for your preschool classroom or homeschool. Please feel free to share your experience. I love you hear from you! @mrsmamabird #learnwithmrsmamabird
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Mrs Mama Bird 