Daycare Lesson Plans on Gingerbread
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Daycare lesson plans on gingerbread are the perfect Christmas themed lesson plan idea for kids. The gingerbread theme is a holiday classic in early childhood settings. Children love the smell, taste, and creativity that comes with gingerbread cookies, houses, and stories.
Using gingerbread as a foundation for lesson planning provides opportunities to weave in literacy, math, science, art, sensory play, and more. Below you’ll find subject-based ideas to help you build a full unit around gingerbread in your daycare program. We have a big gingerbread party every year as well, so gingerbread is one of our favorites!
Gingerbread stories are a perfect way to bring reading to life. Children enjoy the repetition, rhythm, and predictability, which strengthen their comprehension and confidence. I love to start every lesson plan I create with a book. Then I base the activities I create around the themes of the book.
- The Gingerbread Man and encourage children to chime in with the repeated phrase “Run, run, as fast as you can!”
- How to Catch a Gingerbread Man
- The Gingerbread Baby
If you want a two week printable lesson plan including the Oklahoma ELGs for the QRIS quality rating that includes a supply list, and a daily schedule, check out our Daycare Lesson Plans on Gingerbread on Teachers Pay Teachers. It has 8 days’ worth of activities for you to use.
Literacy
- Story Retelling: Use puppets, a felt board, or printed character cutouts so children can retell the story in their own words. This builds sequencing and recall.
- Create New Endings: After reading, invite children to suggest different characters the gingerbread could meet or new endings for the story. Write their ideas on a large chart and let them illustrate their version.
- Dramatic Reading: Act out the story with the kids. Assign roles—the gingerbread, the animals, the fox—and let them “perform” for each other.
Math
Gingerbread naturally lends itself to counting, sorting, shapes, and patterns.
- Counting Cookies: Make paper gingerbread cutouts numbered 1–10. Children can place the correct number of buttons or stickers on each cookie.
- Patterning: Use gumdrops, peppermints, or pom-poms to create patterns on paper gingerbread men or houses. Kids can practice AB, AAB, or ABC patterns.
- Shape Hunt: Cut gingerbread men, houses, and trees from cardstock. Have children identify the shapes they see—circles for buttons, triangles for roofs, rectangles for doors.
- Measuring: Show children measuring cups and spoons. Pretend to “bake” by filling with rice or flour, letting them scoop and pour while comparing sizes.
Science
Baking and sensory play provide endless science connections.
- Mixing and Measuring: Make gingerbread playdough together. Let children measure flour, water, cinnamon, and ginger. Talk about how dry and wet ingredients combine.
- Changes in Matter: If you bake real cookies, let kids observe the dough before and after baking. Discuss how heat changes the texture, smell, and shape.
- Sink or Float: Place gingerbread cookie cutouts laminated with contact paper into a water tub along with other “ingredients.” Ask children to predict which will sink or float.
- Spice Smelling Jars: Fill small containers with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Let kids smell each and guess which ones are in gingerbread.
Art
Gingerbread art projects encourage creativity while building fine motor skills.
- Paper Gingerbread People: Give each child a cutout to decorate with crayons, buttons, yarn, or sequins. Encourage individuality—no two cookies should look the same!
- Cookie Collage: Provide brown paper circles or men and let children glue on small paper “candy” decorations.
- Gingerbread Houses: Use graham crackers and frosting to construct simple houses, or decorate paper gingerbread house templates with markers and stickers.
- Group Mural: Create a giant gingerbread house on butcher paper. Let the class work together to design and decorate it with collage materials.
Sensory Play
Sensory activities help children relax, explore, and learn with their hands.
- Playdough Fun: Provide gingerbread-scented playdough with rolling pins and cookie cutters. Add beads or buttons for decorating.
- Cookie Tray: Fill a bin with gingerbread cutouts, sprinkles, scoops, and measuring spoons for pretend baking.
- Spice Exploration: Let children mix cinnamon and nutmeg into paint to add scent and texture.
- Frosting Station: Use shaving cream with a few drops of brown paint to create “frosting” kids can spread on laminated cookie cutouts.
Dramatic Play
Pretend play builds social skills and imagination.
- Gingerbread Bakery: Transform your play kitchen into a bakery. Add aprons, bowls, mixing spoons, rolling pins, cookie sheets, and empty spice containers.
- Cookie Shop: Make price tags for pretend cookies and provide play money. Children can practice buying and selling cookies.
- Story Theater: Encourage kids to act out gingerbread stories using costumes or masks.
Music and Movement
Music and physical activity keep kids engaged and help with rhythm and coordination.
- Freeze Dance: Play holiday or upbeat music. When the music stops, children freeze like gingerbread cookies.
- Cookie Chase: Choose one child to be the gingerbread cookie and others to chase. When caught, another child takes the role.
- Rhythm Play: Tap out rhythms from gingerbread rhymes or chants with shakers, bells, or drums.
- Action Rhyme: Teach the chant, “Run, run, run as fast as you can—you can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man!” with movements like running in place, hopping, or tiptoeing.
Social Studies and Culture
Gingerbread has a rich history that connects to traditions around the world.
- Tradition Talk: Share photos of gingerbread houses in Germany, gingerbread cookies in Sweden, or Mexican holiday breads. Discuss how different families celebrate.
- Family Connection: Ask children if their family bakes cookies or bread during the holidays. Encourage them to share stories.
- Community Helpers: Invite a local baker (or a parent who enjoys baking) to visit and talk about making cookies.
Cooking Activities
Cooking together combines literacy, math, and science while giving kids a meaningful, tasty outcome.
- Simple Gingerbread Cookies: Let kids help pour and stir ingredients, roll out dough, and cut shapes. Even if you bake them later, the process matters.
- Decorating Party: Provide cooled cookies, icing, and sprinkles for kids to decorate. Wrap extras for families.
- Snack Extension: If real baking isn’t possible, decorate graham crackers with frosting and candy for a fun, no-bake version.
Outdoor Play
Bringing the gingerbread theme outside keeps kids active and engaged.
- Gingerbread Hunt: Hide laminated gingerbread people around the playground and send children to find them.
- Cookie Toss: Draw large gingerbread people on the sidewalk with chalk. Give kids beanbags to toss onto the shapes.
- House Building: Provide large boxes or outdoor materials for kids to create playhouses, just like life-size gingerbread houses.
Family Engagement
Families love being included in holiday themes.
- Take-Home Craft: Send home a gingerbread man outline with directions for families to decorate together. Display the returned projects in your classroom.
- Cookie Exchange: Host a small cookie-decorating day where families join in.
- Photo Keepsakes: Snap pictures of kids with their gingerbread art or houses and share them with parents.
Tips for Implementation
- Keep it flexible. Use these activities across a week or spread them throughout the holiday season.
- Expect mess. Baking, decorating, and sensory play will be messy, but the joy and learning are worth it.
- Use what you have. You don’t need fancy supplies—substitute with paper, recycled materials, or natural items.
- Follow the children’s interests. If your kids want more time with the bakery, let the theme expand.
A gingerbread theme is engaging, versatile, and joyful. It gives children a multi-sensory experience that blends literacy, math, science, art, and play. From baking cookies to acting out stories, gingerbread activities build not only academic skills but also lasting holiday memories. With a little planning, you can transform your daycare into a gingerbread wonderland full of laughter, learning, and the sweet smell of the season.
For how to make gingerbread kits to send home, check this out.
Home Daycare Lesson Plans
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