Here's a little FREE Printable for the Gingerbread Man theme.  Print out the gingerbread men.  You can either cut out the actual shapes or just cut each 8 x 11 sheet in half .  I do suggest cardstock and/or laminating for durability.  Place the gingerbread men all around the classroom. Give your students one of the two checklists.  On one, students just check off the sight words as they find them.  On the other, students write the words as they find them.  Click on the picture to take you to my Teachers Notebook Shop where you can download this file for free.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Update:  See this hunt in action HERE.

Over 150 classes are participating in this year's Gingerbread Exchange!  If you signed up, but haven't received an email with the list of addresses....please check your spam and then contact me at [email protected] 

One teacher from a previous exchange said that her class enjoyed using the Leap Frog Tag Reader U.S. map along with this activity.  ( I can't find her name.  If it was you please take credit!). Since I already have two Tag Readers, I decided to get the map for my class.

Sorry - I cannot accept any more classes for this year's Gingerbread Exchange....but I will probably do the Valentine's Exchange again in February.

Now I am off to whip up some green bean casserole for my school's Thanksgiving tonight...

Blessings,

I am going to organize a Gingerbread Man Exchange again this year.  

Here's how it works:

This exchange is open to Pre-K, preschool, and kindergarten classes only.  (Homeschoolers of the same age group are welcome).

If you want your class to participate email me at [email protected] by midnight Saturday, November 10, 2012.  I will ONLY be including emails that are sent to that address.  It gets too confusing to check my personal email, blog comments, etc.  

You MUST include your name, the COMPLETE address that you want other participants to mail gingerbread men to, and the email address that you want to be contacted at.  i.e. Gingerbread School, Attn:  Mrs. Dough's Class, Room 1, 123 Sweet St., Sugar Land, TX 12345.  If you are using your home address, please write (home) so I will know you are not missing school name, etc.

Around November 15, 2012 I will email you a list of approximately 15 classes that you will exchange with. I will do my best to include classes from different parts of the country on each exchange list, but in the past I have found that we cluster in certain areas.  If I notice two classes from the same school, I try to put them on different lists.

You will send one decorated paper gingerbread man to each class on the list.  Decorations might include, lace, stickers, paint, markers, foam pieces, etc.  Please do not glue candy or other food to the paper gingerbread man.   In addition you will send a short card or letter to the class telling them things like:

The name of your school

A city that you are close to (to help locate your town on a map)

How many students and/or boys/girls are in your class

Your school's mascot

Favorite books, activities, centers that your class enjoys

Something interesting about your town or state (Your baseball team won the World Series,  a food your area produces, etc.)

Why you decorated the gingerbread man the way you did.

A photo of your class is not required, but the children LOVE to see one!

The gingerbread men MUST be mailed out by Friday, November 30th.  This allows classes to enjoy receiving mail at the beginning of December before winter breaks begin.

Also,  don't forget to enter the Lakeshore Software Giveaway.

And... I am still looking for some blogging teachers to participate in the the Pay it Forward game.

Blessings,

We are really enjoying the Pre-K Gingerbread Man Exchange.  This photo shows gingerbread men from List 1 and List 2 since I put another Pre-K class from my school on list 2.  The kids are getting a nice introduction to Geography as we plot the gingerbread men by state.

About sixty Pre-K classes participated in the exchange this year.  Many have suggested a Valentine exchange.  I will organize one in January to take place in February 2012.  Please join this site and/or like the Facebook page if you want to be notified when we start the Pre-K Valentine Exchange!

AND

Remembering that Jesus is the reason for the season....

Here is an art project we did this week:

This is always one of my favorite literacy activities.  I originally found it here:http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/seasonal_related.html#Gingerbreas.  I contacted the original author  Kim Lengning who has graciously allowed me to attach my version here.  I am extra excited this year because my school now has the die-cut gingerbread man that is just perfect for this project.

I work with a small group of kids since the tearing needs to be closely supervised.  Each book requires six gingerbread men.  The crunch, crunch, crunch page uses scraps left over from the previous pages.

Here are the printable pages: 

http://creativeprek.webs.com/One_Yummy_Gingerbread_Man_Book.pdf