The Gingerbread Man

Monday

• Our puppets Nancy and Will enjoyed reading the Gingerbread Man to each other.

       They looked at all the pictures and talked about what was happening to the characters at 

       different parts of the story.

       You can watch the story if you click on the link at the top of the page

• Our puppet Nancy loves numbers so she decided to make a '10 frame' for Will.

        We use these frames at school to help us with our counting and understanding of numbers.

        She used some cardboard from a cereal box and made a frame with 10 squares on it.

        Nancy found 10 stones from outside and gave them to Will.

        She showed Will the number 4 and asked him to put the correct number of stones on the 

        '10 frame'.

        She then asked Will to put the four stones on again but use a different pattern on the '10

        frame'.   

        Nancy wanted Will to understand that he could make lots of different patterns with the  4.

•  Could you make a '10 frame' and try and play with the numbers between 1 and 10?

Tuesday

•  Did you watch the story of the Gingerbread Man using the link above?

        When we read the story at school we drew a picture together of the gingerbread man

        running down the road.

        Could you draw a picture of the gingerbread man running away from all the characters in

        the story?

•  Nancy set Will a challenge today using the '10 frame'.

         She put some stones on the frame and gave Will three numbers to choose from.

         She wondered if he could count the stones and find the correct number.

         You could make this activity easier or harder by:

              choosing from two numbers

              choosing from four or more numbers

              using fewer stones on the 10 frame

Thursday

• The puppets Will and Nancy continued to play with numbers today.

       They found a tray from the kitchen and put a thin layer of sugar on the tray.

       Then they tried to copy different numbers with their fingers in the sugar.

• If you want to have a go you could use flour instead and a plate instead of a tray.
• You can try to copy any numbers or use your fingers to make marks in the sugar to represent a number like in the photo.

• Will and Nancy read the Gingerbread Man again and asked each other questions about the story.
• They talked about the different characters chasing the gingerbread man.
• Can you decide who was 'first', 'second' and 'third' in the race?

Friday

• I have attached the recipe that we use at school to make play dough.
• The children and I make it together all the time and it only takes a few minutes.
• Why not make a gingerbread man shape with it or make a pizza and get some leaves and small stones from outside to decorate it.

       Play dough recipe:

• 2 cups plain flour
• half to one cup warm water
• 2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil (or any sort of edible kitchen oil)
• half a cup of table salt (this is optional, but acts as a preservative and adds a bit of extra texture and body to the dough)

How to make the play dough:

• Add the flour, oil and salt to a bowl and stir
• Add a couple of tablespoons of water to the bowl and start mixing gently
• Slowly add more water as required until you get a play dough consistency
• If the dough feels to sticky add more flour and more water if it is too dry.
• The dough will keep for a few days in the fridge in a sealed container.