I love any rendition of this classic story. There is so much here to use for preschool education. There is rhyme, repetitive text, prediction, farm animals, math, science (what would happen if a cookie goes into the water?) and movement if they play “gingerbread boy/man” tag. In this version, of course “boy” does not rhyme with ran or can – but it is a great opportunity to ask the children if it does.
I made copies of a few of the characters and laminated them to help remind the children of the text when I read the story.
Of course, this is the favorite part of the story. The fox “helps” the gingerbread boy across the river. He climbs on his tail, then back, then shoulders, then nose. (Also wonderful for teaching the younger children about body parts).
After the story, we had some fun with a gingerbread boy. We “ran” him down a country road (on the projector)!
Each class also received a laminated gingerbread boy to play tag. Gingerbread tag: the child holding the gingerbread man says “run, run, run, catch me if you can!”, the rest of the children run after him. They might choose to have someone play the fox and take the gingerbread “across the river”.
Each child also received a cookie to take home to retell the story. The best part is acting out the character of the fox and eating the cookie!
We made some gingerbread boy ornaments during my “library fun time” after school:
We also had a fun with both laminated gingerbread boys and cookies. They all loved acting out the end of the story. The gingerbread boys climbed onto the fox’s tail, then back, then shoulder, then nose… then SNAP!
Here is another version of the Gingerbread Man:
Find more Gingerbread Man fun on my Pinterest board here: