Free Gingerbread Man Preschool Lesson Plans

Need some fun and easy gingerbread man activities for your preschool? These free gingerbread-themed lesson plans are full of hands-on ideas that are great for December or January. It works well whether you celebrate Christmas or just want a creative winter preschool theme idea. You’ll find a mix of literacy, math, sensory play, crafts, and social-emotional activities, all of which are designed with preschoolers in mind.

Since gingerbread traditions are found around the world, this theme is a perfect, inclusive option for preschool classrooms, especially if you have students who don’t celebrate Christmas. A gingerbread man theme offers the fun and festivity of the winter and holiday season without relying on specific holidays, making it ideal for diverse, secular, or culturally sensitive settings.

These gingerbread man activities for preschoolers are among my favorite winter lessons! They’re designed for both toddlers and preschoolers, and they’re part of my Learn at Home Preschool Lesson Plans. Inside, you’ll find gingerbread math and literacy games, sensory play, crafts, social-emotional activities, and more. They’re all hands-on and developmentally appropriate for early learners.

Gingerbread Man Lesson Plans for Preschool

Check out the activities below for gingerbread letter activities, gingerbread math activities, gingerbread crafts, and even gingerbread science activities.

Literacy Activities for a Preschool Gingerbread Theme

Gingerbread Man Alphabet Train – Make a yummy cookie alphabet train! Print off the alphabet cards from the gingerbread alphabet activities post and invite your preschooler to line up the gingerbread men in alphabetical order. Each gingerbread man card has a single letter on it.

You can make this more or less challenging for your preschooler by using all the letters, both upper and lowercase at once, or you can choose just one set at a time. You can even use these gingerbread man cards to spell names, sight words, or simple CVC words.

Gingerbread Man Old Maid Game – There’s a runaway gingerbread man in this exciting preschool game, and it comes with a fun letter recognition twist! This gingerbread man card game is perfect for reinforcing matching and alphabet skills.

To play, deal out all the cards to your preschoolers. Invite them to find and set aside any matches in their hand. Then, take turns drawing one card from the player to the left. If the card makes a match, they keep the pair. Play continues around the circle until all the cards have been matched — except for the one runaway gingerbread man card (like in the classic “Old Maid” game). The player left holding it is the “runaway!”

Gingerbread Picture Books

There are now so many different versions of the Gingerbread Man Story, and it’s really fun to read them all to our preschoolers. Here are some of my favorite gingerbread people books.

STEM Activities for a Gingerbread Preschool Theme

Gingerbread Math Counting Circle Time Song – This activity is a really fun way to teach preschoolers basic addition concepts. Using the printable pages, preschoolers can practice composing five. Select a page and ask your preschooler to identify the number. Using the gingerbread men, invite your child to add enough gingerbread men to the tray to make five total.

Gingerbread Cookie Counting – Fill a gingerbread man cookie cutter with pom-poms or other small items. Roll a die and add the number until the cookie cutter is full. How many can you fit in each cookie cutter? Do you get the same number of items if you use a different manipulative? Try more than one and compare the results. Kinda’ like this Christmas cookie cutter math activity.

Gingerbread Cloud Dough – Make fine motor cloud dough with a few ingredients and invite your preschooler to add buttons and explore freely. This is a fantastic science and sensory activity. If you’re worried about the mess of cloud dough, just lay down a shower curtain from the dollar store and remind your preschooler that the cloud dough has to stay in the bin.

Playful Learning Activities for a Preschool Gingerbread Theme

Tea Party – Set up a cozy gingerbread man-themed tea party with your preschoolers and their favorite stuffed animals. Serve gingerbread cookies, either homemade by the class or store-bought, and practice gentle manners, conversation skills, and pretend play. This activity supports social-emotional learning and is a calming way to introduce themed role-play into your classroom. This is a super fun kindergarten gingerbread man project to celebrate the seasons.

Hide and Seek – Add a playful twist to the classic game of Hide and Seek by turning it into a gingerbread man and fox chase! One child plays the gingerbread man, while the others become foxes trying to find him. This preschool gross motor activity adds excitement to your holiday learning theme and helps build listening skills and spatial awareness.

Puzzles – Save that box from the gingerbread house kit! Cut out the box front in various puzzle shapes to make an impromptu puzzle. Puzzles are great for critical thinking and spatial awareness, and preschoolers absolutely love them! Or you can take a photo of a gingerbread house your preschooler made, print it, and make a puzzle out of that photo.

Social-Emotional Activities for a Preschool Gingerbread Theme

Gingerbread Emotions Matching Game – The free Printable Gingerbread Emotions Matching Game is a playful and meaningful activity that helps kids explore and identify emotions through a gingerbread theme. This memory-style game encourages social-emotional learning by pairing fun gingerbread faces with emotional expressions. It’s a low-pressure, play-based way to help preschoolers build emotional vocabulary, recognize facial cues, and engage in thoughtful discussions about feelings.

Managing Difficult Situations – Go to YouTube and listen to the story The Gingerbread Man by Jim Aylesworth. After listening to the story, discuss with your preschooler how it was hard for the man and woman to catch the gingerbread man. Question your preschooler on hard things. “What do you do when things are hard? What can you do?” Encourage them to reflect on how the whole town came to help and they didn’t stop trying to catch him.

The Gingerbread Man Has Feelings Too – Draw five or six gingerbread men using a cookie cutter or freehand. Invite your preschooler to create scenarios/a story for the gingerbread man and draw his emotions. “The gingerbread man has an argument with his gingerbread friends, he feels so angry! What kind of face should you draw on the gingerbread man?”

Encourage the gingerbread men to work together with their varied emotions to end the story on a happy note. This activity is perfect for building imagination and expressing creativity through art. 

Fun Activities for a Preschool Gingerbread Theme

Gingerbread Playdough and Cookies – Make this yummy and spicy gingerbread playdough recipe…that doubles as a cookie recipe! After playing with it, time to grab the cookie cutters for a tasty treat.

Gingerbread Gross Motor – Invite your preschooler to pretend to be a gingerbread man. Use terms other than running like skipping, rolling, tip-toeing, etc. Don’t forget to outsmart the fox!

Gingerbread Plate Craft – Paint a paper plate brown. After it’s dry, use yarn to make hair and use buttons to make eyes, rosy cheeks, and a nose. Draw the mouth on with a marker. Add a gingerbread body if you like!

Get Online Activities for a Preschool Gingerbread Theme

Online Story – Go to YouTube and listen to the book Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett. After reading, reread the story and this time focus on the gingerbread man cutouts on the left and right side of the pages. What is Matti doing as the story progresses (making a gingerbread house)? Why would the author include these clues?

5 Gingerbread Men Song – This catchy song is a fun spin on the classic tale and encourages learning subtraction in a simple way.

Gingerbread Man Song – A kid favorite! Jack Hartmann does it again with a lively song about the gingerbread man.

Gingerbread Preschool Supplies to Enrich Your Lesson Plans

Sometimes adding in themed learning items makes the theme more hands-on and engaging! These are some of our favorite Gingerbread themed learning toys and activities.

Get Your Free Printable Gingerbread Lesson Plans Here

Think these gingerbread activities will be a ton of fun for your preschoolers? Download and add these ideas to your gingerbread unit by grabbing your own copy! Click the image below and then check out our 20+ gingerbread man printables for preschoolers!

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FAQ About Gingerbread Man Activities