1. The Gingerbread Man Traditional Tales Reception Class Spring Term
Expressive Arts & Design
Use percussion instruments to make the sounds of the different characters throughout the story.
Make gingerbread men using cardboard cylinders for the body, pipe cleaners for the legs and add buttons to his body.
Cut out gingerbread man shapes from brown coloured felt, for the children to decorate by sticking or sewing embellishments to.
Have a variety of building materials in the construction area for children to build their own bridges or boats, to help the Gingerbread Man escape from the fox.
Build a gingerbread house out of cardboard and decorate it with the children.
Music – Everyone! – explores family, friends, people and music from around the world.
The Gingerbread Man
Traditional Tales
Literacy
Encourage them to join in with repeated refrains.
Ask the children to use their knowledge of the story to sequence it.
Compare different versions of the story – How are they similar/different? Are all of the events the same?
Bake some gingerbread men and then model writing simple instructions with the children.
Set up a small world version of the story to encourage children to retell it.
Make some Gingerbread Man shaped booklets for the children to mark make in.
Provide Gingerbread letter cards to encourage children to explore word building.
Provide writing frames to give support to children when retelling the story.
Write whole name without aid
Reordering stories
Story mapping/Storyboards
Informational writing
Begin Group Reading if ready
Phonics – Phase 2 and Phase 3
Communication & Language
Make a story shelf with prompts in it to encourage the children to retell the story to each other.
The Gingerbread Man Story Sack and Story Stones.
Join in with repeated refrains from the story – speech bubbles.
Look at prepositions such as ‘under’, ‘on top’, ‘behind’.
Play a listening game where one child is blindfolded in the middle of a circle. The children in the circle take it in turns to say, 'It's only me, the Gingerbread Man,' in an appropriate voice.
Role Play masks to rein act the story using the story language.
Provide a story basket with a book and a variety of props from the story. This will encourage children to retell the story once they are familiar with it.
Construct a bridge outside to help the Gingerbread Man escape. Encourage the children to go ‘under’, ‘on top’, ‘behind’ etc.
Reception Class
Spring Term
Personal Social & Emotional Development
Board Games – taking turns – snakes and ladders/ supermarket game/ fishing for numbers – can they invent their own board game with rules
Feelings – looking at facial expression and feelings.
SEAL: Good to be me
Why do you think the Gingerbread Man was running away? How was he feeling? What would you have done if you had seen the Gingerbread Man running away from all of the other characters?
What object would they like to come to life in the same way that the Gingerbread Man did?
Discuss the way in which the characters tried to catch the Gingerbread Man. Was this the right thing to do?
Talk about the importance of staying away from strangers. Encourage the children to think about what the Gingerbread Man should have done in that situation.
Understanding The World
Bake Gingerbread Men - encourages children to investigate the changes that take place to the ingredients as you bake.
Explore the way in which ingredients change when they are mixed together and cooked, by making gingerbread men.
Explore what would happen to the Gingerbread Man if he tried to swim across the river.
A great STEM activity is to challenge the children to help you build a gingerbread house. What will you need to do to make it strong enough to stay standing?
Use a paint/drawing program on the IWB for children to draw pictures of the characters from the story.
Can the Bee-Bot visit all of the characters from the story in the correct order?
Computing: Sending s & A is for Algorithm.
Science: Materials - Looks closely at similarities, differences. Can talk about some of the things they have observed such as materials and found objects.
RE: Practice & ways of Life - Expressing meaning -
Special Objects/Places: Why are some objects/places more special than others? What are my special objects/places? Prayers - Special Places & Special Times
Maths
In practical activities and discussion, begin to use the vocabulary involved in subtracting.
Children count reliably with numbers from 1 to 10 .
Recognises numerals 1 to 10.
Counts out up to 10 objects from a larger group.
Count actions or objects which cannot be moved.
Selects the correct numeral to represent 1 to 10 objects.
Counts objects to 10.
Counts an irregular arrangement of up to 10 objects.
Children use everyday language to talk about size, weight and capacity to compare quantities and objects and to solve problems.
Orders two or three items by length or height.
Orders two items by weight or capacity.
Using numbered gingerbread man - Play ordering games, missing number games, matching and counting games etc.
Explore capacity and weighing whilst baking gingerbread men.
Physical Development
Riding a bike
Pencil control: Letter formations
Moving in different ways and negotiating space.
Make bridges with large loose parts in the outdoor area and use it to get across an imaginary stream.
Re-enact the story with the children and encourage them to experiment with different ways of moving. Ask them to think about the ways the different characters in the story would move.
Catch me if you can - develops the skills of moving around and avoiding obstacles.
Have some tweezers available for the children to move the buttons onto the template to make up the eyes, nose, mouth and buttons on the Gingerbread Man.
PE FOCUS: Gymnastics / Parachute