Sure and Begorrah, 'tis the Gingerbread Man!

What's that, you say?  You were expecting a leprechaun in March?  Well, you have to expect the unexpected as a kindergarten teacher!


We have begun our six week unit on folktales. I really think it is the most popular, most fun unit that I've created as a kindergarten teacher. The kids are so engaged and so enthusiastic!  I'm constantly hearing, "This is so much fun!"  and "I love school more than anything!"  Each week, I select a different folktale to share with my class.  These are the six folktales:

The Gingerbread Man

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Stone Soup

The Little Red Hen

The Three Little Pigs

Here is what we do each day for The Gingerbread Man.  You can use it as a prototype for the rest of the folktales.  Maybe one day I will post my ideas for each of the other folktales...

Monday:  I bring in a huge unbaked, yet-to-be decorated gingerbread man.  I show it to the children, telling them that I love to make cookies and made this one for them to share.  However, we have to bake it.  We put it in the oven (which is not turned on) in the teacher's lounge.  When we come back later, it is not in the oven (because I've arranged for someone to remove it and hide it.)  A large note tells the children

I like writing the note on the parchment paper that covered the gingerbread man.

Then we go back to the room and discuss what might have happened.  After hearing their reactions, I tell them my version of the folktale.  I put on a pretty shawl and explain that all folktales were originally told this way because, in the old days, there were no books.  

I DO use cut-out characters and settings which I created myself because children seem to need the visuals to pay attention and comprehend new material.  These used to be flannel board pieces but now I just set them in a pocket chart on an easel as I tell the story:

I have also created a poster of the refrain (or repeated words) for each folktale.  This becomes our shared reading piece for the week.  As I tell the story, I point to the words in the refrain and the children soon join in the reading.

Afterwards, the children identify the characters, settings, and events in the story.  Then they practice their handwriting by neatly copying laminated phrases from the folktale.  This is not an original idea but here is a picture of the materials:

Tuesday: I show them a collection of different versions of the folktale and read one of them aloud.  I really like to read The Gingerbread Cowboy because there are different characters and settings.  I continue to display the refrain and the children share in its reading at the appropriate points in the story. We compare the two versions which they have heard so far.

Wednesday: We read another version of the story, often The Gingerbread Boy by Richard Egielski because, once again, there are characters and settings which differ from the original version.  And we continue to include the refrain as a shared reading portion of the read-aloud.

Thursday:  I read aloud a classic version of the folktale from an anthology.  This means there are no pictures for the children to view.  Having heard the story three times now, almost everyone can attend to the auditory learning experience.  Speaking of developing listening skills, we also listen to a song for each folktale which I've downloaded from I-Tunes.  

Afterwards, we create our own puppet shows.  The puppets are ones that I've purchase from TpT or other websites.  The backdrops of the settings are mostly my own ideas and maybe I will publish them all on TpT one day.  For The Gingerbread Man, the children draw the cottage, a field, a barn, a school, the forest, and a river on a sentence strip.  As individuals finish, they gather on our mat spots and retell the folktale to one another.

Friday:  On the last day of the week, we enact the folktale. First, we retell the story by sitting in a circle and passing around a fun prop representing the story.  Each child tells a little bit of the story and we try to tell a lot of details so 20-25 children can each speak. 

We pass around this fun prop as we retell the story.

For the dramatization,I have simple costumes or, at least, sentence strip hats with cutouts of the characters for each of the folktales.  Over the course of six weeks, every child has a leading role in at least one play.  Those who aren't acting are the ones to read and repeat the refrain as I narrate the folktale.

This "gingerbread boy" was very convincing as he positioned himself on a "cookie sheet" in the "oven."

We also do a simple craft project on Fridays which relates to the folktale.  For example, everyone cuts out and decorates a gingerbread man.  They also make a sign for it to hold saying, "Eat more (Oreos, chocolate chips, sprinkles)!" for their gingerbread man to hold.

And, of course, everyone enjoys a small piece of the giant gingerbread man! 

Here is a nice coloring page freebie.