Disguise a Gingerbread Man Project with Digital Activities

Family projects are a fun way to engage families in the learning process and with many teachers in hybrid or distance learning models, this is more important than ever.  This Disguise a Gingerbread Man project was designed with flexibility in mind so that teachers can engage all of their learners.  This pack includes printable and digital options with 2 different premises.  Teachers can set up a “Best-dressed Cookie Competition” or a more traditional challenge to create a gingerbread man disguise so that he won't be eaten. 

►►►Click here to get your Gingerbread Disguise Project with printable & digital options!

How to Introduce the Activity

Choose a version of the Gingerbread Man story to read to introduce this project.  We always did a whole unit on the Gingerbread Man story in December because we weren't allowed to celebrate Christmas but gingerbread still felt like the holidays.  The stories are engaging and they are a great way to compare texts, versions of the story, practice retelling, sequencing and so much more!  I'll link my favorites here (all the links below Amazon affiliate links.  If you are a Scholastic Book Club member, check there first for the best prices!).

• The Gingerbread Boy by Paul Galone (This is the traditional story.)
• The Gingerbread Man by Karen Schmidt (This is the traditional gingerbread man story with easier language.)
• The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campell Ernst (This is a fun twist on the original with a female lead character.)
• Gingerbread Friends by Jan Bret (This is a series with the Gingerbread Baby as the lead character, in this story he is searching for a friend.  It's a great story with awesome illustrations.)

After reading, you can show your students the project.  It helps to show some past examples, too.  If you have trouble coming up with ideas or you've never done this project before, just Google “gingerbread man disguise project” and you'll find lots of inspiration.  You'll want to give families plenty of time to complete the project, but not too much.  I found that giving families 2 weekends is just the right amount of time. 

How to prep this project

This activity is very low-prep.  Just make copies and send them home (or you could choose to complete it in class)!

–Type up your letter to families for directions (or just tweak the one included in the pack) and make sure to include a due date.  

–Make one copy of the letter and one copy of the gingerbread person template page per student (I recommend copying this on cardstock).  

– Choose which writing page template you'd like to use and make a copy for each student as well. (You can choose to send the writing part home for parents to complete or you can complete that together in class. )

You can choose to connect the pages with a paperclip or staple them.  Then you send it home! That's it.

Using the Seesaw Activities

To use the gingerbread man disguise Seesaw activities, you'll need a Seesaw account.  You can sign up to get a free Seesaw account here.  It's is a great, easy-to-use platform for both in-person and distance learning.  

Then all you'll have to do is click the Save Activity Link and save it to your library.  Then you are ready to assign it for your students.  The activities and directions (including an example and audio directions) are already preloaded, so all you need to do is choose which version you prefer and click assign. 

In the first activity best-dressed cookie option, our students will use the move tool to “dress” their gingerbread person and then write a persuasive writing piece to tell why they should win the competition.  

In the second disguise a gingerbread person option, students will use the drawing tools to create a disguise and then can use the pen tool or the text tool to write their sentence (or story) about the gingerbread person. 

Get your Gingerbread Man Diguise Printables

I'd love to see the finished products – be sure to tag me on Instagram @teachingexceptionalkinders!

If you are looking for more family projects, you can read about my Disguise a Turkey Project here.