Gingerbread Week: Gingerbread Activities Unit for Grades 2-4

Description

These gingerbread activities for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade give you a full week of gingerbread learning across reading, writing, grammar, math, science, and social studies. The theme fits December or January and doesn’t center on any one holiday, so it works in any classroom.

Most of the reading, writing, and grammar work is built around The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett, and I’ve added a list of other gingerbread books you can pull in. Several pieces come in leveled versions, so the same unit works with second graders and fourth graders.

How the gingerbread week works:

Each subject gets its own gingerbread activities, so you can plan the whole week from one unit:

• Reading: The Gingerbread Baby activities: a flapbook on author’s purpose, problem and solution, and cause and effect, character analysis of Gingerbread Baby and Matti, sequencing, the 5 W’s, and comparing two gingerbread books.
• Grammar: a mentor sentence lesson from The Gingerbread Baby, an interactive vivid verbs activity, and quizzes in a lower grade and an upper grade version.
• Writing: responses on drawing conclusions, expository writing about designing and building a gingerbread house, and a “missing” gingerbread person activity where students use adjectives so well that someone else can find their gingerbread person.
• Social studies: the history of the gingerbread man, in three versions written for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade.
• Math: hands-on area and perimeter, a gingerbread glyph, and a gingerbread man recipe with easier and harder questions.
• Science: a dissolving gingerbread cookie experiment with hot cocoa or water.
• Crafts: gingerbread house directions and a gingerbread ornament.

What’s included:

• A list of gingerbread books to use with the unit
• Mentor text activities for The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett:
  • A mentor sentence lesson with an interactive vivid verbs activity and quizzes for lower and upper grades
  • Vocabulary practice
  • A flapbook for author’s purpose, problem and solution, and cause and effect
  • Character analysis for Gingerbread Baby and Matti
  • Sequencing activities
  • Answering the 5 W’s
  • Writing responses on drawing conclusions
  • Comparing two gingerbread books
  • Expository writing for designing and building a gingerbread house
• A “missing” gingerbread person adjective writing activity
• The history of the gingerbread man, in versions for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade
• Area and perimeter activities
• A gingerbread glyph
• A gingerbread man recipe with easier and harder questions
• A dissolving gingerbread cookie science experiment
• Gingerbread house directions and a gingerbread ornament craft

Why a gingerbread week?

A theme gives students something to look forward to in December or January without a full classroom transformation. Because the theme is gingerbread rather than a specific holiday, every student can take part, and the hands-on math, science, and craft pieces make the week feel different from a regular one.

More for winter:

Pair this week with more of my winter resources:

• How Santa Got His Job activities for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade
• Let It Snow! winter math activities for 4th and 5th grade
• Winter reading passages about snow for 2nd and 3rd grade
• Winter reading passages about snow for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade

This purchase is for one teacher. Please don’t share the files with other teachers. Thank you!

Copyright © Ideas By Jivey, LLC
All rights reserved by author, Jessica Ivey.
Permission to copy for single classroom use only.
Electronic distribution limited to single classroom use only.
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