Gingerbread Bear

Book Cover of "The Gingerbread Bear"

Hi everyone. and Merry Christmas!  A wonderful friend came into my classroom last week and handed me The Gingerbread Bear by Robert Dennis.  She knows that I collect gingerbread books and couldn't have given me a nicer Christmas present.  My students were really enthusiastic about pointing out all the similarities and differences between this book and other gingerbread books.



I don't want to give away the whole story, but I want to tell you a few of the funny things that happened when we read the book.  The setting of this story is a national park, and there's a park ranger and his family that make and chase after the gingerbread bear.  Kevin asked "What's a park ranger?"  Giyhana said "You know, like a Power Ranger, except he's a Park Ranger.  Get it?"  After I stopped laughing, this led into a great discussion about what park rangers do for a living.  I thought this was really neat, because this usually wouldn't come up in a community helper lesson.  Also, my students this year are so ruthless when it comes to gingerbread stories!  They always want the gingerbread character to get eaten at the end, and that is so different from every other class I've had before.  When I asked them why, Matthew spoke up right away and said "Mrs. Dudley, you do know they're just cookies, right?"  Seriously, his tone was so full of concern about my "misunderstanding".  Like, why would I not want to eat a gingerbread cookie?

Two songs that would go really great with this book are:  "Goin' on a Bear Hunt" by Greg & Steve, and "Cool Bear Hunt" by Dr. Jean.  I just saw Greg & Steve at the NAEYC conference, and I actually got to talk to them.  I told them that I've been using their music for at least 20 years now.  They signed my CD's and shook my hand; it was really nice.

I just created a new package of writing picture prompts with word banks on TPT.  A freebie is also available that just happens to be about a polar bear.  After Christmas, I'm going to look for some nonfiction books about bears and I'll let you all know what I find.

I will be going to Syracuse this year for Christmas to visit with family.  I hope all of you have a safe and happy holiday!

Gingerbread Friends and More

"Gingerbread Friends" by Jan Brett

I'm not sure if all of you know, but Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett is the sequel to Gingerbread Baby.  It picks up where the gingerbread baby is living in the house that Mattie made for him, and he's happy except for when Mattie goes out with his friends.  So the gingerbread baby goes out into the wide world to find somebody to play with.  This is such a cute story!  He goes to a bakery and sees many decorations, but none of them are alive like he is.  When he comes back home, Mattie shows his love for him by baking him many gingerbread friends.  This book is really lovely for this time of year.

I always make gingerbread houses at this time of year.  Here is a little gift to you, if you'd like to use a guided reading book.  This is one of my children's favorite books, because they really feel like it connects to what we're about to do.  We discuss the sequence of building the house before we actually make it.  It helps SO much!  I think it's really important that kindergarten students have a clear picture of what we want them to do.  Years ago, I did this project without using the book, and I can honestly tell you the houses come out much nicer with the instructions.
My Gingerbread House Big 2

Another thing I like to do at this time of year is make sight words really fun and accessible to my kids.  So I made this Christmas tree where the children have to match the sight word ornaments to the words that are already on it.  I did it first in large group, and they went crazy for it.  They begged me to put it in the ABC center!  Since it's laminated, I did put it in the center, and they've been recognizing sight words all week.  Below are the ornaments in PowerPoint format so that you can make it your own.  What I did was cut a green tree from posterboard and put it on black backing for contrast.  Then I printed the white ornaments on sticker paper, cut them, and attached them to the tree.  Next, I laminated the finished tree and then put velcro above each of the words.  I printed the colorful ornaments, laminated them, cut them, and then put velcro on the back of each one.  Then it was ready to go!

Sight Word Christmas Tree

Sight Word Christmas Tree


I also wanted to tell you that I just put up Christmas Guided Reading Books and Winter Sight Word Board Games on TPT, and I think they're two of the best products I've ever made, mostly because they were inspired by the wishes of children in my class.  If you have time, take a look and let me know what you think.

The Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow

In January, one book that I can't wait to read to my students is There Was A Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow.  I like it because it's really great for remembering details and sequencing.  It's also a fabulous link to talking about temperature and different types of weather and seasons.  I compare this book to previous books that we've read, such as There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Pie, and There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Trout.  In fact, every month of the school year I do a different version of this story.  I always make props that my students can use to say what she swallowed first, second, third, etc.  I use large pictures when we do whole-group retells, and smaller pictures for them to sequence on sentence strips for their seat work.

Please enjoy these January giveaways.
Sequencing Pictures for There Was A Cold Lady Swallowed Some Snow

Pictures for There Was A Cold Lady Swallowed Some Snow

If you want more "Old Lady Who..." props, look at my store on Teachers Pay Teachers:

Story Props for There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat
Story Props for There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Pie
Story Props for There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Trout

There's a really great song by Dr. Jean Feldman (from Keep On Singing And Dancing With Dr. Jean, which you can find here) called "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly."  I especially like this song because instead of ending the rhyme with "...perhaps she'll die," Dr. Jean says "...perhaps she'll cry."  And at the very end of the song, after she swallows the horse, it says "...this is a silly song, of course."

Gingerbread Integration

My pre-k students really enjoy the fact that they can go to Library Center and pick up a book to read by themselves.  I made this very simple gingerbread counting book for just that purpose.

Number Gingerbread Man Book

I read the book to my students during guided reading, and I also had gingerbread cookies for them to count.  They placed the correct amount of cookies on each laminated page of the book.  I also found a great song on iTunes by Tiana called "The Gingerbread Men."  The song counts backwards from 5 and includes a pretty neat rhyming pattern.  One additional thing that I did with the song was to give my students gingerbread number cards.  Throughout the song, as each gingerbread man got eaten the student holding that number gave it to me.

Snowman Action Book

This is a book that I made for my kindergarten class a few years ago.  Since the snow is coming, I thought it would be a great resource for others to use in January.  Some things I did after printing out the book to use with my kids were: highlight high-frequency words in the book, have them re-write the sentence, share reading the book with 3 other students in the classroom, and take the book home and read to siblings or parents.

Snowman Action Book

Numeral Recognition With Snowmen

My pre-k students are excellent counters.  However, they have trouble matching numerals to objects.  I found a great winter song on iTunes called "Six Little Snowmen" by LifeWay Praise Kids.  It counts backwards from six to one, and has each snowman melt as the sun comes out (a great science link).  I went to Michael's Art & Craft and got six plush snowmen.  I then put little, laminated and brailled necklaces on each snowman.

Plush snowmen wearing teacher-made number necklaces

The children use these snowmen also in Math Center and sing the song independently.  I like using things that the children can feel and interact with.  The literature link that I used after the song and counting activity was Frosty The Snowman.  It's a really good book based on the classic song "Frosty The Snowman" by Bing Crosby.

Great songs to use in the winter

Currently I'm working on a theme called "Weather & Seasons."  I didn't choose this theme - it's part of the pre-k curriculum chosen by my county.  I've been trying desperately to find concrete activities that my students could participate in, to help them understand what they would experience during the different seasons.  These two snowflake songs are excellent for getting little ones up and moving while learning about weather, natural phenomena, personal space, and how to move in a creative fashion:


"Swirl, Twirl, Melt and Pop Up" by Kate Kuper and Neal Robinson
"Snowflake Dance" by Surie Levilev

A friend, who is a performer herself, found out that I really wanted white dance scarves.  I've searched the internet for two years trying to find such a product.  I can't say how pleased I was when my friend presented me with a bag of them!  The children use the scarves to represent snowflakes, and it really allows them to feel the lightness and delicacy of how a snowflake would move.  It often seems to me that if young children are given completely open-ended time for dancing, they become slightly wild.  I have observed that the scarves allows children to exercise their creativity but also gives them an object to focus on so they do not get out of control.