The Gingerbread Man Storytelling Craft and Free Printable -

This week we used an envelope in a clever and crafty way to make a paper gingerbread house Christmas craft. Then we used our free printables to color, cut, and retell the story with the characters from The Gingerbread Man book including a cute little old man and woman, sly fox, and boastful gingerbread man–you should hear the laughter from my kids as they made up their own silly versions! When kids are done telling their story they can simply tuck their puppets back into the gingerbread house to keep them contained and to make sure that sneaky little gingerbread man doesn’t run away again (*wink* *wink*).

If you like Book Activities be sure to check out last week’s story inspired activity. We read the Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett and made Cinnamon Ornaments to hang on our Christmas tree.

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Did you know the Gingerbread Man and the Gingerbread Boy story have been entertaining children for over 140 years and that gingerbread isn’t the only food that has known to runaway (the list includes pancakes and dumplings…mmm). With a story that old different variations of the same story emerge so one day we read The Gingerbread Man (affiliate link) and the next day we read The Gingerbread Boy (affiliate link).

When reading two different versions of the same story it is a perfect time to do some extra learning by comparing them, talk about characters, and look at the different illustrations. The printable activity includes several different animals and accessories so everyone can use it regardless of what book you have. Before doing the activity I suggest having kids cross off the pictures that weren’t in the story (or stories) that you read and only using the ones that match your book. This will be a great way to review and will ensure that their puppets match your book.

Suggested books:
The Gingerbread Boy (Paul Galdone Classics)-affiliate link
The Gingerbread Man-affiliate link
Gingerbread Baby-affiliate link

The Gingerbread Man Book Activity

Supplies:
Gingerbread Man Printable (available to download at the bottom of this post)
Envelope (I like the ones with the pointed flap like this one Recycled Brown Envelope-affiliate link)
Markers or Crayons
Christmas Stickers-affiliate link
Popsicle sticks (optional)
Glue or tape (optional)

Directions:
1. Read The Gingerbread Man story.
2. Pull the envelope flap up and decorate the envelope like a gingerbread house using markers, stickers, and whatever crafty supplies you have. (I cut a door into the envelope, but it made it harder for the kids to put their puppets in. I think that just drawing a door on would work just fine). Also, have children decorate the front of the envelope (the side where the stamp goes) or be prepared to cut some of the stickers to make the opening to the envelope accessible again.

My kiddos loved using stickers to decorate their gingerbread house. Before my son could get to business he had to apply all car stickers he could find to his hand–heaven for bid we try to do something without involving cars, lol.

3. Select which puppets you are going to make from the printable, color them, cut them out, and if you wish you may glue or tape popsicle sticks to the back of them.
Their is a knife for the butcher, a hoe for the threshers, and a sickle for the mowers.

The Gingerbread Man Storytelling Craft and Free Printable: Kids can decorate an envelope to look like a gingerbread house and color, cut, and retell the story with the characters from the book. (December, Kids Activity, Book Extension, Christmas, Preschool, Kindergarten)

4. Have children retell the story using their puppets, then they can have fun making up their own stories.

My kid’s loved this part and kept making up story after story and the more stories they came up with the sillier they got–now I just need to write them down to make our own Gingergread Man book :).

Gingerbread House Craft

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Free Printable: The Gingerbread Man Activities

Download available via Google Drive. You do not need a Google account to download. It’s always a good idea to laminate (affiliate link) printables or put them in a dry erase pouch like our homemade one. Please share and pin our printable 🙂 While you are here, take a look at more of our Free Printables. Graphics by Prettygrafik.com.