News, Nursery

2025 Gingerbread Man

Posted on by Academy Author
19
Jun

What happened in the story of The Gingerbread Man?

This week, Little Birds have been looking at the book ‘The Gingerbread Man’.

They have been looking at the characters in the story and inquiring about different feelings and emotions.

The front cover of a children's book titled "My Very First Story Time: The Gingerbread Man

The children enjoyed investigating how to make gingerbread mixture.

They helped measure out the ingredients- developing their mathematics and physical skills, as well as using their senses to explore the ingredients.

This picture captures children engaged in cooking. In Gingerbread2.jpg, a group of children, including one in a Spider-Man hat, are gathered around a table with an adult. They appear to be mixing ingredients, with one child pouring flour into a bowl on a scale. Gingerbread3.jpg shows a closer view of the same activity, with an adult helping a child pour from a bag into a bowl.
This picture captures children engaged in cooking. In Gingerbread2.jpg, a group of children, including one in a Spider-Man hat, are gathered around a table with an adult. They appear to be mixing ingredients, with one child pouring flour into a bowl on a scale. Gingerbread3.jpg shows a closer view of the same activity, with an adult helping a child pour from a bag into a bowl.
A child, in a school setting, using a rolling pin on dough.
This picture shows a child using a gingerbread man cookie cutter.
Another child focused on rolling out dough.
multiple children at a table with rolling pins and cookie cutters, with various shapes already cut out.
a baking tray with several cut-out gingerbread shapes, ready for baking. Some are clearly gingerbread men, while others are different shapes like butterflies.

The children enjoyed retelling the story using props and puppets, developing their literacy, communication and retelling skills.

two children are looking at an open book with illustrations, and there are small picture cards on a grassy mat next to the book, possibly for sequencing the story.
two children, one in a blue checkered dress, reading the "The Gingerbread Man" book together, with illustrations of the story visible on the pages.
This picture shows a collection of four different children's books, all based on the "Gingerbread Man" story or a similar theme. From left to right, the titles appear to be "The Gingerbread Man" (Child's Play), "Favourite Tales The Gingerbread Man" (Ladybird), "The Gingerbread Man" (M&S First Readers), and "The Runaway Pancake" (Usborne First Reading).

We listened to lots of variations of the story

‘The Gingerbread Boy’ and then compared it to ‘The Runaway Pancake’.

Little Birds spoke about the feelings of the characters in the story:

‘The old woman was sad when the Gingerbread Man ran away.’

‘The Gingerbread Man was frightened when he went into the fox’s mouth’.

‘The Gingerbread Man ran as fast as he could!’

Image shows a whiteboard or poster with a mind map titled "Emotions." There is a cut-out of a gingerbread man at the top. The mind map branches out with different emotions and associated names, such as "Happy when running - Zoe," "Sad - Arlo," "Angry - Arnie," "Scared on fox nose - Theo K," "Happy on the fox - Ayis," and "Sweaty running - Gabrielle." This suggests an activity focused on discussing the feelings of the gingerbread man or characters in the story.
Image features a young girl, possibly a student, sitting on the ground next to a large piece of paper that appears to be a handwritten story or retelling of "The Gingerbread Man." The text is surrounded by small drawings of farm animals, which are characters in the story. This suggests a creative writing or story retelling activity done by the children.

One child made up her own song to connect with the Gingerbread Man story and was proud of her achievement.