Gingerbread Writing and Stations

Hey all- Do you use 6 +1 Writing Traits at your school? I had never heard of it til I moved to TN. But anyways, our school focuses on one trait a month. This month is word choice. So I have been teaching my kinders all about adjectives and being more descriptive with their writing. So this week I came up with a fun activity to do to really get the wheels turning for them!

Day 1: (Today) I baked some gingerbread cookies and brought in icing and sprinkles for the kids to decorate. I knew this would be chaotic with the whole class, so I put my kiddos in "Gingerbread Stations" this afternoon. (They were SOOOO excited when they walked in from specials. I told them it was a surprise and I gave them little hints throughout the day as to what it was! When I put on my Gingerbread apron... I think that gave most of them a good idea of what was going to happen.)

So here are the stations I used:
STATION 1: Number order puzzle

Mixed up gingerbread picture that they have to cut out and put the numbers in order to make the picture correctly. (I found this at http://kindergartenmonkeybusiness.blogspot.com as a FREE download!)

 STATION 2: Coloring

 just printed off some cute clipart I found online for the kids to color. I made the mistake of letting them use my markers... not even THINKING to remind them to put the caps back on. I am so glad I noticed before I went home today otherwise I would have had NO markers left to use for myself. (I LOVE that Gingerbread clipart!)

How cute is this gingerbread house coloring page?!

 STATION 3: Decorate a paper gingerbread man

I am a VERY crafty person (ONLY when it comes to kids) and I'm not afraid of using glitter and such with them. I showed them how to use a pinch of glitter INSTEAD of pouring it all over their paper. I still had a few who didn't listen... but whatevs! My floor gets vacuumed every night, sooo it's all good! =) They had a blast doing it too! I found the template HERE.

 STATION 4: Cookie decorating

Here is the cookie decorating station!

I made one... you know... for "an example"... haha (or just b/c I WANTED to!) 

 STATION 5: Computers

I came across this website through another teacher blog and was so excited b/c it has several different Gingerbread games for the kids to play... so no "I'm done" in the middle of decorating cookies! =) The website is: http://www.lindaslearninglinks.com/gingerbreadmansites.html

I also had other ideas that I did not use...

*Read Gingerbread books
*Use playdoh and Gingerbread cookie cutters
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So that's all I got done today for writing! OH! And I took a picture of each student with their cookie to use for Wednesday.

Day 2: (Tomorrow) We are going to review the 5 senses and talk about how the cookies looked/tasted/smelled/and felt. I will record their responses on a web (sorry- forgot to take a picture tonight! I'll try to remember tomorrow.)

Day 3: The kids are going to receive their own graphic web to choose 3-4 adjectives to write about their own cookie. (I'll let them use our web created as a class AND to look at their pictures so they remember what their cookie looked like. UPDATE 6/ 9/13-- I will post this on my teacherspayteacherstore BEFORE December of 2013. I am currently going through my old blog posts and deleting some really old/embarrasing posts since I've gotten better as creating and my old classroom pics are embarrasing!---- stay tuned!)

Day 4: The kids will put their web into writing... My gingerbread cookie is ______. My gingerbread cookie has ______. etc.

Day 5: Edit/revise as needed.