One of the best things about teaching in December is carrying on traditions from year to year. The teacher I first started teaching Kindergarten with always had the children make real gingerbread men to hang on the Christmas tree in the classroom. (Yes, we DO get to have Christmas at our school). No rolling out and using cookie cutters for this project. We make the cookie men piece by piece because it helps to remind them how our bodies are put together (and sometimes their self portraits improve dramatically after this activity). It also reinforces math terms (sphere and cylinder) and fine motor skills when they decorate the men with 'red hots' and raisins.
So, imagine if you will, 26 students, each with a ball of dough and listening skills that don't last very long. Somehow they were able to follow directions and turn their lumps of gingerbread into shapes that resembled people. I always marvel at the variety of sizes and styles that we get, even though they all follow the same set of steps. Of couse, every year there's one child who comments that the dough looks like poop or a few the don't like the smell. There are also a few that decide to try tasting the dough uncooked. A few years the cups of cinnamon candy and raisins are completely empty when I pick them up. This year they only took out what they used on their cookies and left the rest alone.
So, when the cookies were baked the children were anxious to eat them. When I explained that they would be hung on our classroom tree you would have thought that I had announced recess had been cancelled for the week. Such disappointment should never be heard in a Kindergarten room.
So, since my birthday is this week, we will have some gingerbread cookies for snack time just so they can have a taste of real gingerbread. (Chances are a few will only have a bite or two before they get thrown in the trash.) But at least when they hear the story of the Gingerbread Man, they'll know why the characters in the story were trying so hard to catch the crafty little fellow and what the fox tasted when he got the best of him.
