I love all things gingerbread and so do my students! We recently had our annual Gingerbread Day in first grade and it was a big hit with both the students and parents. I thought I would write a blog post and create a resource centered around Gingerbread Day.
*Please, note this post contains some affiliate links. What that means is, I get a small percentage of the sale (if you choose to purchase through my link) at no additional cost to you.
Here are some photos of what we did:
We rotated through the stations. They took about 20 minutes per station.
Hosting a Gingerbread Day does require prep work on your part.
First, create a sign up list on Shutterfly or another share site for parents to volunteer their time and items. Here is my sample sign up list. *The Parent Square App also allows you to do this.
About a week before the event, start reading Gingerbread themed books to your class. I share the stories each day during our Gingerbread themed morning meetings.
Then we respond to the stories in our Interactive Reading Notebook using prompts from my Gingerbread Interactive Notebook Packet.
Here are a few of my favorites Gingerbread themed books:
Purchase a Gingerbread Man doll and make a big deal about him. I like to put him in a different spot in the classroom each day leading up to Gingerbread Day. I also buy a cool pop up Gingerbread House for the students to read books in. On the actual Gingerbread Day, I put up a big blow up Gingerbread. Here are some of my favorite items:
Make Gingerbread Headbands for the students to wear on Gingerbread Day.
Have a Gingerbread Taste Test and graph the results!
I also have a non-food graphing activity which is included in the resource:
Send out reminders to the parents. These are included in the resource.
Plan for at least an hour and a half block of time to complete the stations. I choose to only do 4 stations at 20 minutes each. I prep all the supplies the day before and have them in bins. I also make sure to give the office and front desk a list of parents attending.
Finally, enjoy the day! I float around stations and take photos of students. I have them all wear their headbands while completing the activities.
At the end of the day, I give students these free H.W. passes:
I hope you consider checking out my resource HERE on TpT.
All of my Gingerbread Resources are bundled together for one stop value shopping:
