I love doing a gingerbread theme the week after Thanksgiving at the beginning of December. In this post, you’ll find Gingerbread themed speech therapy activities that are filled with opportunities to practice language, articulation, following directions, early literacy skills, and more!
Gingerbread Books
Books are the perfect resource for mixed groups because you can target so many different skills, such as the following:
Vocabulary
Answering Questions
Making Predictions
Making Inferences
Perspective Taking
Problem Solving
Feelings/Emotions
Problem Solving
Feelings/Emotions
Comparing/Contrasting
Sequencing/Retelling
Story Elements (character, setting, problem, solution)
Here is a short list of some of my favorite Gingerbread themed books for you to consider and some of the skills that you can target with each book. (includes Amazon affiliate links):
- The Gingerbread Man by Gail Yerrill: Read the classic tale to introduce sequencing and story retelling.
- How to Catch a Gingerbread Man by Adam Wallace: Target answering questions, sequencing, problem solving, predicting, and making inferences.
- Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett: Use the detailed illustrations to target WH-questions, vocabulary, and descriptive language.
- Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett: Practice answering questions, identifying feelings, and making predictions/inferences
- The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst: Discuss character traits and compare/contrast with “The Gingerbread Man.”
- The Gingerbread Kid Goes to School by Joan Holub: Target answering questions, sequencing, problem solving, predicting, and making inferences.
Gingerbread Activities
Hands-on activities:
- Playdough Gingerbread people: Provide gingerbread-shaped cookie cutters and let students create their own gingerbread people. Use small items like buttons, beads, or pipe cleaners for decoration. Incorporate verbs like “roll,” “cut,” “push,” and “squish” while manipulating the playdough. Encourage students to describe their gingerbread people using adjectives (e.g., “My gingerbread person has blue buttons and a happy face”). Review the activity at the end and practice sequencing the steps that you followed to make your gingerbread people.
- Paper Gingerbread people: Provide a paper gingerbread person cut out and let your students decorate their own gingerbread person. Download a free template HERE. Your students could use crayons, markers, buttons, yarn, ribbon, pom poms, googly eyes, and even fabric to design their own gingerbread man or woman. Ask your students to describe their gingerbread person for the group or have them create a story about their gingerbread man. You could also have them compare and contrast their creation to others in the group. (How are they the same? How are they different?)
Commercial Resources: (includes Amazon affiliate links)
- Candy Land Game
- Gingerbread Lego ornaments
- Gingerbread House Sticker Activity
- Gingerbread Puppet Set
- Gingerbread Ball Popper Toy
Printable Gingerbread Resources:
- Gingerbread House Wheel Craft (pictured above): Practice articulation and language skills with these gingerbread house craft wheels. Includes practice for each of the following speech sounds in all positions: K, G, F, V, S, Z, SH, CH, TH, L & R (including vocalic R and blends). You will also find wheels for CV, CVC, CVCV, and multisyllabic words. In addition, your purchase includes wheels to practice vocabulary (winter clothing, Christmas, and general winter vocabulary) and action verbs (pronouns, verb tenses, auxiliary verbs, etc).
- Gingerbread Cookies Articulation activity (pictured below): Includes practice for the following sounds in all positions: M, N, P, B, T, D, K, G, F, V, S, Z, SH, CH, J, TH, L & R (including vocalic R and blends!). There are so many ways to use these pages! Students can use dot markers (bingo daubers), crayons, stamps, magnetic chips, mini erasers, playdough, gum drops, or even real cookies to cover each gingerbread man on the page.
- FREE Printable Gingerbread Baby board game on the Jan Brett website
Digital Gingerbread Resources:
- The Gingerbread Man Interactive Fairytale Boom Cards Activity
- Feed the Gingerbread Man Boom Cards Articulation Activity
- Guess my Gingerbread Man Boom Cards Language activity
- Where is the Gingerbread Man Boom Cards Preposition activity
- ABCya! Make a Gingerbread House online activity
- The Gingerbread Man video by Jack Hartmann
Your Turn!
Finally, I would love to hear some of your favorite Gingerbread theme books and activities. Please comment below!
