This is a EFL ESL Gingerbread Man lesson plan which will last about an hour to an hour and a half. It is suitable for primary/elementary aged kids although you could easily adapt it for different age groups. It teaches the story of the Gingerbread Man and the different characters and also looks at food vocabulary and building a gingerbread house. If you’ve got the ingredients, you could build a real gingerbread house, otherwise in this lesson plan, we’re going to make a gingerbread house poster for the classroom.
This would be an excellent lesson to do around Christmas time. However, I’ve taught it at all times of the year and the kids always love it. You can adapt your gingerbread house poster and make it a spring themed house or decorate it with autumn leaves to make it more suitable for the season you’re in.
For this Gingerbread Man EFL ESL lesson plan, you will need:
- A large sheet of quite thick paper to make your poster
- Card in different colors
- Markers for coloring
- Glue and scissors
- Flashcards of the Gingerbread Man story – make your own or use something like these
- Plastic food or food flashcards – you’ll need sweet food like cakes, candy and ice cream
- A cookie flashcard or gingerbread man flashcard and a cookie jar or box
Gingerbread Man songs and videos:
- Who Took the Cookie from the Cookie Jar? by Super Simple Songs
- Let’s Build a Gingerbread House by Sara Womack
- The Gingerbread Man Story by Pancake Manor – there are lots of different versions of this story with different characters so choose one you like and use that
- Do you like Pickle Pudding by Super Simple Songs
Introduce your food vocabulary and sing a song
Start with your normal Hello routine or song and then get out your plastic food or flashcards. You can introduce this to the children by using a mystery box or by drawing it on the board or by miming what it is. Teach the names of the different foods with lots of TPR and then ask the children if they like each item of food. Get them to reply “yes I do” or “no I don’t”. Then sing together “Do you like Pickle Pudding?” adapting the song to the types of food you have learned. Then in pairs, let the children practice asking each other if they like the different food and answering.
Play a game – Who took the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?
Sit the kids in a circle and introduce the cookie and the cookie jar. Then play Who took the cookie from the cookie jar. Take turns to hide the cookie or gingerbread man card behind different children and chant the rhyme together. Then introduce the characters from the version of the story of the Gingerbread Man you are using with flashcards. Let each child be a character and play the game again in character. You might need to put them in smaller groups if you have a big class so that everyone can be a character. So it becomes, “who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?”, “Grandma stole the cookie from the cookie jar” and so on.
Tell the story – The Gingerbread Man
Tell the story of the Gingerbread Man using a book, puppets or toys or a video. As I’ve said, there are lots of different versions of this story with different characters or animals so choose one you like and use this. Be careful if you are using a video. Some of them can be a bit scary for very little kids so watch it all the way through first. Don’t forget to use lots of TPR as you’re telling the story. Get the kids to repeat the chorus “Run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man!” until they know it really well and can do it with actions.
Act out the story
Now it’s time for the children to act out the story so give them different characters and tell the story while they act it out. Leave them to make up words for their characters like ” yummy, I like cookies” or “I’m going to eat you!” and then everyone can join in with the gingerbread man when he runs away.
Practical Activity – Let’s make a Gingerbread House poster
Tell the children that you ‘re going to make a gingerbread house poster and decorate it with all the things they like to eat. On the sheet of paper, draw a rough outline of the house. Then let the kids draw and cut out the different parts of the house and the food they want to decorate it with. It can be as simple as elaborate as you want depending on how much time you have or want to spend on it. Don’t forget to get the kids to tell you what food they’re making and if they like it or not. Then stick everything on the poster and find a good place to hang it where everyone can see.
Learn a song
To finish your lesson, learn the song Let’s Build a Gingerbread House. Adapt the words to include all the different food you’ve used as decorations on your gingerbread house poster. Let the kids point them out as you sing.
Let me know if you try this Gingerbread Man EFL ESLlesson plan with your class and do share any photos you take on my Instagram or Facebook pages. It would be great to see how you adapt it to your class so please leave any other ideas in the comments. If you’ve enjoyed it, you can find other lesson plans here. To stay up to date with new lesson plans and teaching ideas, you can follow the GoogooEnglish Facebook page. Alternatively, sign up for email updates below.