Read Aloud – The Teaching Texan

Bring the magic with Gingerbread Man Activities for Kindergarten: Engaging Literacy, Math & Center Ideas

theteachingtexan — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 22:14:48 +0000

If there’s one theme that instantly lights up a kindergarten classroom in December, it’s Gingerbread Man activities. Something about that playful little cookie captures students’ imaginations every single year — and honestly, it keeps me smiling too.

But here’s the thing most non-teachers don’t realize:
December is also one of the hardest months to teach. Schedules change, excitement is high, assessments sneak up out of nowhere, and we’re still expected to keep learning meaningful. That’s exactly why I love using literacy centers and small group lessons that feel festive but stay intentional.

And the Gingerbread Man theme might just be the best example of this.

Let me show you how I make it work without adding more planning to your already full plate.

Why Gingerbread Man Activities Work So Well in Kindergarten

The magic of a Gingerbread Man theme isn’t just the colorful crafts and sweet stories — it’s the learning possibilities hiding beneath the whimsy.

With one theme, my students can:

Build vocabulary using real pictures
Develop background knowledge through nonfiction facts
Practice reading and writing skills with playful prompts
Strengthen fine motor and listening with directed drawings
Work independently in kindergarten literacy centers

And yes, they still think they’re just having fun.
(That’s the best part!)

If you teach kindergarten, you already know that engagement is half the battle — especially in December. When learning feels like play, students stay focused, confidence grows, and behaviors calm down.

How I Introduce Gingerbread Man Literacy in a Meaningful Way

I start our week with a teacher-led mentor text, but instead of reading a storybook right away, we explore nonfiction. My students learn real facts about gingerbread, baking, ingredients, and traditions.

We anchor vocabulary using real photo cards, which are incredibly helpful for emergent readers and multilingual learners. Instead of guessing at pictures, they build actual knowledge — the kind that supports comprehension later.

From there, we explore poems, labeling pages, and shared writing opportunities. My students think they’re just talking about cookies… but they’re actually building literacy skills that matter all year long.

A Classroom Favorite: Gingerbread Directed Drawing

This might be the quietest 20 minutes of the entire month.
(Every time we start a directed drawing lesson, I can practically hear angels singing.)

Students practice:

Listening comprehension
Fine motor control
Following sequential directions
Visual literacy skills

And the best part?
No two gingerbread people look alike — which makes for the cutest hallway display.

If you want to try this part for free, you can grab my Gingerbread Man Directed Drawing here. It’s a classroom favorite and zero-prep.

What Our Gingerbread Literacy Centers Look Like

During centers, I want independence, engagement, and meaningful practice… not busywork. Here’s what I rotate through the week:

Word work & phonics with a gingerbread twist
Writing prompts that extend nonfiction learning
Reading center with gingerbread poem + response
Vocabulary activities with real-world connections
Math centers that build number sense through play

When centers stay themed, students understand expectations quickly. They aren’t learning how to do the centers — just practicing the skills inside them.

This is especially important in December. The more familiar the structure, the more confident they become, and the easier small group instruction becomes for YOU.

Want a Week of Gingerbread Man Activities Planned for You?

If planning during December feels overwhelming, you’re not alone. I used to scramble for ideas, search Pinterest late at night, and piece together activities from different places. It took forever — and it wasn’t always aligned with what my students actually needed.

That’s why I started creating thematic literacy + math units that are developmentally appropriate, fun, and academically strong.

Inside the Gingerbread Thematic Unit, you’ll find:

A nonfiction mentor text
Real-photo vocabulary cards
A poetry activity
Informational writing pages
Literacy centers
Math centers
Labeling
Directed drawing
Anchor chart templates
KWL chart and more

Everything is ready to print, teach, and enjoy — which means you get to spend more time actually teaching… and less time prepping.

Your future December self will thank you.

First Day of School Activities That Build Community

theteachingtexan — Sun, 30 Aug 2015 23:04:00 +0000

Howdy friends!

Do you still get first day jitters? I know I do! But something happens the moment that first little learner walks in—the “teacher instinct” kicks in. My focus shifts from all the prep work to helping my students feel welcomed, safe, and excited to learn.

We had such a blast on our first day back, and I know every teacher says this, but… I’ve got a special group this year.

Now that our first week is in the books, I wanted to share some of our favorite first day of school activities for Kindergarten and first grade that build community and set the tone for the year.

Using Chrysanthemum to Teach Kindness

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes is always a beginning-of-the-year favorite—and for good reason. This was actually the very first lesson I ever taught as a brand-new teacher, and it’s still a staple in my classroom.

Here’s how we made the lesson come to life:

As we read, students took turns crumpling up a large butcher-paper heart.
Then, they tried to smooth it out again.

The powerful visual shows how words can hurt, and even when we try to fix them, the marks remain. This year I added a short kindness poem to the heart (thank you, [First Grade Parade] for the idea!). It made such a meaningful keepsake for our classroom wall.

Teacher Tip: Keep the heart hanging up for a few weeks and refer back to it during those tricky early-year moments when students are still learning how to speak kindly to one another.

This year I added a little poem to the heart after we were finished. I got the idea for the poem from the wonderful [First Grade Parade].

Exploring the School with Pete the Cat

No first day is complete without a tour of the school! Even though most of my students already know the building, a new grade level means new spaces—and it’s always helpful to revisit expectations.

To make our tour extra fun, we used a Pete the Cat scavenger hunt:

We started by watching Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes. (The singing in the video is too good to pass up!)
Next, the students noticed a note with a blue paw print in our meeting area.
That kicked off our scavenger hunt, where Pete led us around the school.

You can grab an editable copy of our Pete the Cat scavenger hunt by clicking the image below. Customize it to fit your own school tour!

Building Classroom Community with Swimmy

Finally, we wrapped up the day with Swimmy by Leo Lionni.

After the read-aloud, students created their own fish—no templates, just creativity! This gave me a quick, informal assessment of fine motor skills like drawing, cutting, and gluing.

Then came the best part: as a class, we combined our fish to create one giant fish, just like in the story.

At first, everyone placed their fish randomly. But when we realized the big fish wasn’t taking shape, one of my students suggested using a pointer so each child could propose where their fish should go and then vote as a class. My teacher heart melted watching that leadership and collaboration unfold!

Teacher Tip: Keep your “Swimmy fish” displayed during the first few weeks of school as a daily reminder that you are stronger when you work together.

These first day of school activities—Chrysanthemum, Pete the Cat, and Swimmy—are simple, engaging, and help build a strong classroom community from day one.

If you’d like to save time and have everything laid out for your own classroom, I’ve created a Pete the Cat Scavenger Hunt that’s editable and classroom-ready. It’s designed to make your school tour interactive, fun, and stress-free while reinforcing routines from the very first day.

Grab the Pete the Cat Scavenger Hunt here and make your first day unforgettable!

With the prep done for you, you can focus less on logistics and more on getting to know your new group of students.

Paint, Paper, & Popcorn: An Art Themed Summer Fun Camp!

theteachingtexan — Sun, 28 Jun 2015 14:55:00 +0000

The end of June is quickly coming – where is summer going?!? As many of you may have been enjoying summer break for quite some time and others are just getting started with your break, your probably wondering why I’m blogging about a summer camp. Well, I’ve been at my new school working for the past 2 weeks. OK… I wouldn’t call it “work.”

I was fortunate enough to be asked to teach at our early childhood summer camp. The hours are great and it’s been a TON of fun (and heck, the pay doesn’t hurt either)! When I got the e-mail asking, I jumped at the opportunity to meet some of the kiddos that I’ll have next year and get acclimated to my new school.

Today I thought I’d share some of the fun art activities that we’ve completed over the past 2 weeks. Some activities tie to specific pieces of children’s literature, some tie directly to specific artists, while others are just plain FUN! And yes, I know these were completed during a summer camp – but I’m a firm believer that teachers should build art into instruction (once a week during specials for most children is simply not enough to cultivate an appreciation and understanding for art). These ideas could also be fun for your own children over summer break.

First up was our introduction to pointillism and Georges Seurat.

We looked at some art books from the library that featured work from Georges Seurat then watched a quick video clip about him. Let me introduce you to Art with Mati and Dada! These videos are short, about 7 minutes, and make learning about artists accessible to even the youngest kiddos!

After learning about pointillism, it was time for the kiddos to try their hands at this style of art! We used q-tips and tempura paint to create our own masterpieces. I think they came out absolutely adorable. This one just stole my heart!

Next on our plans for exploring art was to create bowls using paper maché mix. I wanted to try something a little more exciting for the kiddos than paper, so we used yarn!

I found a gluten-free paper maché mix at Michael’s (this was important as I did have a couple kiddos with gluten allergies). I wrapped plastic wrap around plastic bowls from Dollar Tree and taped it down to make it easier to get the yarn bowls off later. The kiddos spent time dipping yarn of their choice into the paper maché mixture and wrapping it around the bottom and sides of bowls. I recommend using yarn that is 100% cotton because it absorbs the paper maché mixture better than synthetic yarns. It took about 2 days to completely dry, but they turned out so awesome!

With all of our focus on art, the kiddos were hungry to learn about a new artist. They were also just plain hungry! We needed edible art!

Jackson Pollock is known for his drip style of painting. I thought it would be fun to have the kiddos try their hand at drip painting using icing and popcorn! To make the icing, use powdered sugar and add water until you get a smooth consistency (a little more on the liquid side makes the drip painting easier). We used 4 cups of powdered sugar and probably 1/2 cup of water and that was more than enough for 20 kiddos!

Of course there is another fantastic Art with Mati and Dada video for Jackson Pollock.

An unexpected work of art appeared as we worked on drip painting our popcorn. I had previously laid butcher paper on the table to aid in clean-up, and as the kiddos moved between the icing cups and popcorn the butcher paper was dripped on. It ended up looking pretty cool, and the kiddos were so excited when they realized what had happened!

Continuing with our food-art theme from the previous day, we learned about Wayne Thiebaud.

Wayne Thiebaud is an artist most commonly known for paintings of common objects, including food! We looked through an art book to see some examples of Wayne’s work. Then, we got our hands dirty with puffy paint!

To make puffy paint, mix equal parts white glue and shaving cream. I let the kiddos add drops of food coloring to create whatever color they’d like. This was a nice departure from your typical “painting” by adding in some texture and a 3-D aspect. FYI these took a couple of days to completely dry.

Moving on with texture, we discussed how some art may be smooth, bumpy, rough, etc.

The kiddos created art on sandpaper using crayons. When they were done, we used an iron to transfer the picture to a piece of a paper. I think the kids were pretty amazed with the picture transferring, and only the crayon on the raised surfaces of the sandpaper transfers so it makes almost a pointillism style copy.

To wrap up our fun 2 weeks of art, the kids made picture frames out of popsicle sticks. I know, not the most creative thing in the world – but it was something new for them and you can’t go wrong with a classic!

To make these, use 8 popsicle sticks and white glue. I had a variety of decorations for the kids to add – stickers, beads, pom poms, markers, etc.

Before I printed the pictures I added each kid’s name and Fun Camp 2015. Who knew that you could still have pictures printed at Walgreens?? I haven’t printed pictures in years!

These are a super cute gift for the kiddos to take home to their parents.

I hope these ideas will helpful for you during the school year, or even over the summer with your own kiddos!

5 for Friday: End of Year 2015

theteachingtexan — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 05:01:00 +0000

177 days of school later and it is officially that last day of the 2014-2015 school year.

It’s been an interesting ride, for sure!

Why not celebrate the last day with a 5 for Friday linky party?! Today I’m linking up with [DoodleBugs] to share five random things from the past week.

Today is the last day of our countdown to summer.

We’ve been having a blast popping the balloons to reveal a surprise for each day. Today is bubble day – shhhh, don’t tell!

You can read more about this end of year countdown [here].

As you know, I am making the move to private school this coming school year. That means completely packing the classroom up and hauling it home for the 3rd time in 2 years. Even though it’s a ton of work, I truly am excited about the future!

This is all that’s left for me to tote home today. I would say then it’s summertime bliss – but I start PD for my new school on Monday! The good news is that July will be super calm!

This year I decided on a smaller end of year gift, instead of the beach buckets that I did last year. Part of it was because of the home reno we’re going through – trying to save some $$$. The other part of me wanted to really focus on the message of the gift.

Today I’m giving each kiddo a copy of The Story of Ferdinand. The message this story gives about accepting diversity and differences has always struck a chord with me. It’s my hope that it will inspire my kiddos to be themselves, no matter what.

I attached a copy of this poem to the inside.

We wrapped up our unit on Eric Carle this week.

After reading A House for Hermit Crab, we had to make our own hermit crabs!

This craft is super simple and requires NO printing!

The kiddos traced their hands on red construction paper (this is the hermit crabs’ head/body).

Then we glued a small paper plate on (this is the hermit crabs’ shell).

We used a black crayon to add eyes, antennae, and a swirl on the shell.

Then the kiddos got to go to town with the watercolors to add details!

BTW say a little prayer that our butterflies come out of their cocoons today!!! We reviewed butterfly life cycles with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, then got a chance to watch our own caterpillars grow – but these little ones need to hurry up so my kiddos can see them before summer break!

This week we got our new cabinets installed & painted!!! The reno is coming along, and will hopefully be finished in about 2 weeks! I can’t begin to tell you how excited we are to be able to cook in our own kitchen again! Here’s a look at the before kitchen (50s style), after demo, and with cabinets installed.

Anyway, I’m off to spend my last few hours with my kiddos. Happy Friday y’all!

Monday Motivation: It’s a Zoo In Here!

theteachingtexan — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 23:04:00 +0000

This week it’s literally a zoo in our classroom – in more ways than one!

First off, today through Wednesday is STAAR testing (our state accountability exam). During this lovely period of time K-2 gets to pretend that we don’t exist – I kid, I kid. Well, sort of. We really do have to nix the outdoor recess, stay super quiet in the halls, have grouped specials… the list goes on. Needless to say the kiddos start to get a bit antsy after being cooped up so long. (Hence the zoo reference part 1)

Luckily we will be visiting the Dallas Zoo for our Spring field trip next week so we are learning all things zoo animals leading up to it! This is helping to keep us a little more motivated to learn. (Hence the zoo reference part 2 – see, I kept my word!)

For today’s Monday Motivation post I want to share a new resource that I created to accompany our zoo unit. I love this pack for the ease of bridging literacy, science, and social studies!

The plan is to focus on one animal per day during the literacy block and then again during the science block (double whammy!). As we complete each page of our journal I am collecting them so that we can compile them later on. I chose to print the writing page and labeling (science) page for each animal front and back to keep it simple.

Today we started off learning about elephants with a fantastic story called “Elephant’s Story” by Harriet Blackford. Can I just say that the kiddos were enthralled listening as the elephant grew up. This is such a great book for introducing just enough factual information, while following an engaging story line.

After we finished “Elephant’s Story” we created a class Can/Have/Are chart. I love how much the kiddos had already picked up on from just our first exposure to elephants.

I think Can/Have/Are charts are so awesome for getting a ton of information into one space AND are super helpful for struggling writers because they can easily pull pieces from them to write sentences if needed.

You can also see two of the other books we used throughout today (one for a quick Read Aloud filler, the other for our non-fiction science lesson).

After verbalizing our knowledge about elephants, it was time to write! I am just so proud of how far my little writers have come this year.

I love how matter-of-factly this friend let’s her reader know that elephants do not eat peanuts, LOL!

Here’s a look at a friend hard at work labeling the parts of an elephant.

If your class is visiting the zoo this Spring, I hope this will inspire you to get your kiddos brains soaking up knowledge about the animals that they will be seeing at the zoo! Click the picture below to snag your freebie by downloading the product preview!

Monday Motivation: Loads of Ladybugs!

theteachingtexan — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 23:18:00 +0000

If you’re reading this, I have great news for you.

You survived Monday (and I guess that means I did as well)!

But seriously, today and tomorrow are STAAR (state) testing so we are pretty much confined to the classroom – so not fun on a Monday.

I thought it’d be fun to share a fun lesson idea for a classic read aloud and freebie today for my quick Monday Motivation post. This week we are doing all things ladybugs, so we after discussing what we already knew about ladybugs, we jumped right into the one and only “The Grouchy Ladybug” by Eric Carle.

This book is definitely a favorite for the kiddos (and let’s be honest, myself as well).

After reading the story I had the kiddos tell a partner why they felt the ladybug was grouchy. The kiddos wrote their ideas on a sticky note and added it to the class anchor chart. So easy, quick, and the kiddos love using stickies! I snagged this idea from [Nellie Edge].

During science we tied in our ladybug theme by learning about the parts of a ladybug. I whipped up this [FREEBIE] to record our learning! Make sure you grab your copy!

I’m definitely excited to continue our week with ladybugs. We may be having some special little visitors join our class on Wednesday! If you’re in need of ladybug larvae, caterpillars, etc. I highly recommend Insect Lore Ladybug Land!

Monday Motivation: An Interactive Inferencing with Pictures Lesson

theteachingtexan — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 00:59:00 +0000

Welcome to the first installment of “Monday Motivation!”

I ~~plan to~~ am going to start a weekly blog post series on lesson ideas including freebies, resources, etc. I am so excited to commit myself to this and continue working on my New Year’s goal of remaining FOCUSED! Anyway, on to the good stuff…

Recently I have been spending so much time focusing on phonemic awareness, decoding skills, letter recognition (for my struggling babies), and general concepts of print that my kiddos are showing a bit of struggle with comprehension. I finally got my hands on a DRA kit (my entire district has NO reading assessment kits like DRA, F&P, etc.) and have found that even my kids who are above level are really struggling with comprehension. What good is all of our work on basic reading skills if the kiddos can’t comprehend what they have read??

Cue in today’s lesson on the one and only inferencing. I hope this inferencing lesson idea will be useful to you! My kiddos had a blast with it today!

Let’s start off with supplies needed:

Sticky notes (4 per student)
4 pictures to display for Gallery Walk + 2 more for lesson (You can follow links to the pictures I used if you’d like to use the same ones.)
Picture book appropriate for inferencing (I used “This Is Not My Hat” by Jon Klassen – it’s an absolute favorite of mine!)
Making an Inference Using Pictures [FREEBIE]

I started off the lesson by asking students what they noticed about the picture below.

We discussed how the little girls facial expression, hand on head, bath robe, and thermometer all give us clues that she is sick. That lead right into explaining that the kiddos had just made an inference and spending a few moments talking about what an inference was.

Next up was the read aloud – admittedly my favorite part because of the story chosen! “This Is Not My Hat” is literally the perfect story for teaching inferences! The words tell one story (the little fishes thoughts), but the pictures tell an entirely different story. Throughout the read aloud I stopped to allow students to make inferences as a whole group and with partners.

We practiced making inferences one more time with the following picture – I pushed my kiddos to look as deep as they could. What happened? Where is the man looking? Why is he holding his hand that way?

Finally it was time to see if my little kinder friends could fly solo! I set up 4 stations around the room for our Gallery Walk. The pictures are on makeshift trifolds (construction paper and paper clips). Students spent about 2 minutes at each station discussing what inferences they could make and recording their thoughts. This was also a great chance to sneak in some writing without the kiddos focusing on only using proper technique – just get those thoughts out!

Below are the 4 pictures I picked to use during the Gallery Walk. I tried to search for pictures that had a hidden layer of meaning to stretch my kiddos thinking…

The ice cream must be melted because it is hot outside.

It’s pretty obvious it’s this kiddos birthday, but looking for clues as to how old he was turning was perfect!

Kiddos discussed the flooding in the picture and what caused the house to tip over. They also were very interested in the family trying to get away to safety.

This picture of a puffin with dried grass proved to be the hardest for my kiddos, but so worth scaffolding their thought. The puffin is most likely getting supplies to build a nest.

We wrapped up by sharing our inferences from each station. Verdict is… THEY GOT IT!

If you try this lesson out, let me know how it goes! I’d love to hear about what worked, didn’t work, and how your kiddos responded!

And That’s a Wrap!

theteachingtexan — Tue, 27 May 2014 20:11:00 +0000

I survived my first year of teaching!!! (I’m currently doing a happy dance. I know that you’re sad that you can’t see!)

Not only did I have a great time wrapping up the year today with my first graders, but I also managed to finish packing/cleaning my classroom AND get officially checked out for summer! Here
is my empty classroom as I said goodbye!

Now for a look at the Read Aloud that I did today. I found this idea somewhere when searching through teaching websites… I read “Miss Rumphius” by Barbara Cooney to my kiddos today. Here’s where I tell you that if you have never read this story, GET ON IT! It is an amazing book about a little girl named Alice (later referred to as Miss Rumphius) who promises her grandfather 3 things: (1) that she would visit faraway places, (2) that she would live by the sea when she gets older, and (3) that she will do something to make the world more beautiful.

The story walks through her fulfillment of each promise. The final promise is fulfilled when Miss Rumphius plants Lupine flower seeds. After she realizes how much she loves them, she plants them all over her village, thereby making the world more beautiful. The story circles back when the granddaughter of Miss Rumphius makes the same three promises that Miss Rumphius did as a child. It is truly one of the best pieces of children’s literature that I’ve ever read, and my kiddos were enthralled from start to finish.

I sent each kiddo home with a small baggie of Lupine seeds and a note attached that said “You must do something to make the world more beautiful.” We talked about how we might not know what that thing is right now (just like Alice didn’t when she was young), but that they would figure it out when they were older.

I don’t shed tears too easily or too often, but let me tell you… reading this story and hearing my kids so excited that Miss Rumphius kept her promises almost made it happen.

Who am I kidding? I did cry today – but just once (or twice). When I had to say goodbye to one of my very special friends, I lost control for a moment. It was hard to say goodbye to my first class ever, but even harder to say goodbye to this friend. Wondering what will happen to this particular student in the future kills me. I wish I could just keep teaching this student because I know that I would do whatever I could to make sure he/she would get exactly what he/she needs. I guess that’s a lesson to be learned as a teacher. That and to not forget my sunglasses for carline on the last day! It’s impossible to hide a stray tear or two without them!

It’s OFFICIALLY summer break for me! I am excited for this much needed time off! And… I found out what grade I’ll be teaching at my new school next year. Stay tuned for the big announcement!