The Gingerbread Man - Preschool Storytime

I typically do a "Cookie" theme as an inclusive, holiday-adjacent storytime in December. However, in January a new staff member will be taking over the preschool storytime and really wanted to do a cookie theme as Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is her favorite childhood book. So I decided to give mine a more narrow focus, and made it "Gingerbread Man" themed (or "Gingerbread People" if you prefer, but I unfortunately could not find more gender-inclusive gingerbread books that were short enough for preschoolers).

I greeted everyone and introduced the storytime by talking about how many people like to bake cookies this year, and even more people like to eat cookies this time of year! We discussed who had already done some holiday baking and favorite cookies, which led into our warm-up, an action rhyme that would allow us to pretend to make cookies:

Making Cookies

We are making cookie dough;
Round and round the beaters go.
Add some flour, just two cups.
Stir and mix the batter up.

Roll them, cut them, nice and neat.
Put them on a cookie sheet.
Bake them, cool them on a rack.
Share them with my friends for snack!

Then we sang our lead-in song, "If You're Ready for a Story", prior to our first story. I began with a traditional telling of the classic Gingerbread Man story, which I found in a collection of classic folktales by Usborne unfortunately entitled Stories for Little Boys. Despite the completely unnecessarily gendered and sexist title, it is otherwise a nice collection of classic folktales that are not too text-heavy or dark, as so many are. (It also includes Pinocchio, Under the Ground, In the Castle, and The Emperor's New Clothes.) 

Since most children aren't familiar with the classic folktales, I like to incorporate them when I can for cultural literacy, and to provide context for the contemporary retellings that often have a humorous twist.

Next, we did a counting-down rhyme, with clipart images of gingerbread people on the magnetic board (I had intended to make nice felt ones, but ran out of time):

Five Little Gingerbread Men

Five little gingerbread men in a row,
Not gonna eat one no, no, no!
But they look so sweet from head to toe
Crunch, munch...uh oh!

Continue until...

No little gingerbread men in a row;
Wasn't gonna eat one, no, no, no.
But they looked so sweet that it's sad to tell
Crunch, munch... oh well!

I followed that with reading How to Catch a Gingerbread Man by Adam Wallace and Andy Elkerton. There are numerous titles in the How to Catch... series, and while I have found this series to be somewhat hit and miss, this was definitely one of the better books of the series. 

The story is set in a bookstore storytime, where they are reading the classic Gingerbread Man story when the Gingerbread Man leaps out of the book and runs away, with the children in quick pursuit. They try various traps in an attempt to capture the Gingerbread Man, but with the help of several other classic storybook characters he always manages to escape. In the end, he decides to return to his story on his own. I loved the way the book featured a storytime setting, and tied in several other classic stories. Though preschoolers may not recognize them all, the adults will appreciate them.

I followed that with another "Five Little Gingerbread Men" rhyme, instead of the song I had originally planned, due to the small size and low energy of the group.

Five Little Gingerbread Men

Five Little Gingerbread men lying on a tray,
One jumped up and ran away,
Shouting, "Catch me, catch me, catch me if you can...
I'm really fast, I'm a gingerbread man!"

Four Little Gingerbread men... (Count down the numbers repeating the stanza above...)

No more gingerbread men lying on a tray,
They all jumped up and ran away.
I guess I'll have to make more another day,
and next time I'll eat them before they run away.

I skipped the usual "Good-bye" song, and sent the kids to wash their hands (we have a preschool restroom attached to the program room) while I put out the craft and some mini-gingerbread men cookies I happened to find at the grocery store a few days earlier. 

In the past I've gotten the regular Pepperidge Farm Gingermen and given them icing to decorate with, but after discovering most kids don't like them, I decided against it this time. But then by chance I found small packages of mini-Gingerman on sale, and thought that would be perfect; since they were smaller, there would be less waste if kids took one taste and didn't want them. However, these were sweeter and less spicy than the regular Gingermen, and the kids enjoyed them.

For the craft, I had gingerbread houses with stickers to decorate with that I had found in my office when I first started working here, something I presume my predecessor had planned before deciding to retire. I'm not sure where she got them, but similar ones can be purchased from Oriental Trading and Amazon.

While they were enjoying their gingerbread men cookies and working on the craft, I decided to read a third book, The Ninjabread Man  by C. J. Leigh and Chris Gall, because I think it's really cute, I knew at least one of the kids would really appreciate it, and it was just too quiet (a very rare occurrence!). As the name suggests, this is a clever re-telling of the gingerbread man story set in a dojo, with the old sensei making a magical ninjabread man, who runs off to test the speed, strength, and wisdom of the ninjas in training.

How It Went 
It was a bit of an off day. I was looking forward to this storytime, which would be my last preschool storytime as my assistant will be taking over in January to free up some of my time for other things, but at the time it was supposed to start, there was no a single soul in the children's department. I waited 10 minutes, then gave up and went back to my office to work. A couple of minutes later, one of the circ staff came back and said there were a couple of families, chronic latecomers, asking about storytime.

Normally at that point I would've just said, sorry, no one was here so storytime was cancelled, but since I really wanted to do this last storytime, and had dressed for the theme (see below), I told them I would do an abbreviated storytime since it was so late. Since it was just three kids, I skipped over some of the usual intro and warm-up. It worked out, and the kids enjoyed it. I overheard one later telling a friend who arrived at the library later all about it and telling him he should have come. I don't know why, but we really struggle with attendance for the preschool storytime, while the toddler storytime consistently has 12-15 kids, and sometimes as many as 20-25.

I decided to be extra festive, and instead of my usual "Oh, snap!" gingerbread man t-shirt, I went all out and wore a gingerbread woman dress I bought on clearance after the holidays several years ago, which I also wore later that evening to promote the library at the local preschool's "Festival of Trees" where each classroom decorates a tree based on a different picture book. In keeping with the theme of the festival, I decorated a small tree on my table with gingerbread people and animals.

Cookies - Family Storytime

I struggled with a theme for my December storytime. We don't do holidays, but I still like to do something kinda special that fits in with the holiday season, without actually portraying a specific holiday. Last year I did a cookie theme, which was perfect, but didn't want to repeat it so soon. I first decided on "snowflakes" since there's just something magical about snow and I had two non-fiction books of gorgeous photos of snowflake crystals, plus I thought there would be some good crafts to go with it.

However, I was ambivalent with the fiction I found that featured snowflakes, and when I tried some of them out at my monthly outreach visit they definitely fell flat. So, I back-tracked and decided to do the cookie theme again, but to be sure to use different books, hopefully some I had never used before.

I began with a short "Hello" song as I handed out programs, and then warmed everyone up with my new opening song that I learned from Jbrary, "Hello, Everybody". I've found I like this one much more than the one I used to use because it's a little more lively and has motions that I can change up and are more fun. I introduced the theme of cookies, and led them in a fun rhyme where we pretend to make cookies, acting out each step.

Making Cookies

We are making cookie dough. 

Round and round the beaters go.

Add some flour, just two cups.

Stir and stir the batter up.

Roll them, cut them, nice and neat.

Place them on a cookie sheet.

Bake them, cool them on a rack.

Give them to our friends for snack!

After sharing what kind of cookies we each made, I transitioned to our first book by saying now they we've talked about making cookies, we were going to see how many other people worked to provide all the things we need to make our cookies. 

I love how Who Put The Cookie In The Cookie Jar by George Shannon shows everything and everyone that goes into making cookies, from the person who manufactures the cookie sheet to the person who cares for the chickens and gathers the eggs. 

Julie Paschikis' illustrations are very bright and cheerful with a folk-art flair and portray multiple skin tones; Shannon's text is uncharacteristically short and simple so that it is a good choice for a wider age range, and has a nice rhythm when read aloud so that it isn't too dry. And for an interesting bit of trivia, George Shannon actually worked as a children's librarian in the library system where I now work very early in his career.

The kids had already spied the next book and were eager to read it, so I went straight to reading The Ninjabread Man by C.J. Leigh and Chris Gall. This is a very fun, modern re-telling of the Gingerbread Man folktale, with the wise old sensei making a special batch of magical ninjabread to test his students. 

When he opens the oven, KA-POW! Out jumps the Ninjabread man, who then disappears with a crack and a flash, subsequently reappearing to test each one of the sensei's students. Though the characters may be slightly different, the ending is the same. This is very cute and funny, and a really fun read aloud.

I followed that with a cookie rhyme with a cookie flannel set I made last year (though I used the yellow star cookie instead of the Oreo pictured this time):

"Five Little Cookies"

Five little cookies, with frosting galore!

Daddy ate the red one, and then there were four.

Four little cookies, two plus two you see.

Mommy at the green one, and then there were three.

Three little cookies, and before I knew,

Brother ate the white one, and then there were two.

Two little cookies; oh, what fun!

Sister ate the brown one, and then there was one.

One little cookie, yum-yum-yum!

*I* ate the last one, and then there were none.

We did this twice, first naming the color of the cookie, and the second time naming the shape.

For our final book I chose one I have read before, but I love it so much I had to use it again. It combines two of my favorite things, dinosaurs and cookies! Cookiesaurus Rex is the king of cookies, so of course he demands to be iced first. At first he's happy, but then he sees other cookies getting sprinkles and other embellishments that he didn't get, so he demands a do-over. Fed up with the cookie's attitude, the baker decides to teach him a lesson, and a hilarious battle of wills ensues! 

Fans of Mo Willem's Pigeon books will love this. The text by Amy Fellner Dominy and Nate Evans is full of attitude and so fun to read aloud, and AG Ford's illustration are gorgeous and colorful.

We ended with singing Cookie Monster's song before moving on to our special craft.

C is for Cookie

C is for cookie, that's good enough for me.

C is for cookie, that's good enough for me.

C is for cookie, that's good enough for me.

Oh, cookie, cookie, cookie starts with C!

Craft

For our craft we decorated cookies! I got small gingerbread man cookies and gave each child two cookies on a paper plate, with about 2 tablespoons of vanilla icing in a small zip-lock bag with the tip of the corner snipped off. I showed them how to hold the icing bag to pipe icing onto their cookie to outline it, make a face, turn it into a ninjabread man, or whatever they wanted.

Piping icing is a great activity for writing skills as it works the muscles of the hand, as well as hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. Some kids tried to draw faces or outlines, and others just piped a pile of squiggly icing, but this is more about the process than the product, and it all tastes the same!

I used these cookies last year with no issues, but a couple of the kids this time found them to be too spicy, so next time I may try to find some kind of sugar cookie to decorate instead. 

How It Went

I was really disappointed at the low turnout I had; only two families were there for the whole storytime, plus one mom and toddler that drifted in and out. It seemed everyone was slow getting up and out that day, as several families came in just as storytime ended, plus it was just a slow weekend overall.

But, the kids that were there were old enough to appreciate the books that were my first choice to read, and enjoyed the humor as much as I did. I had not read The Ninjabread Man before, but I though it was really clever and fun to read. I paraphrased a few sections just a bit to shorten slightly. Though I didn't have a very big crowd, it went well and we had fun.

Cookies - Family Storytime

My current library serves a very diverse population, so we do not do holiday themes at all for regular weekly storytimes (though we do some separate holiday special programs), but I still wanted to do something seasonal, or holiday-adjacent. I like to wait and do snow-related themes in January/February and I'm tired of doing hibernation, so I decided on "Cookies", since everybody likes cookies and they are often a part of holiday and other celebrations.

We started with our welcome song and then I introduced the topic, which elicited lots of smiles. We talked about our favorite cookies, making cookies, and then sang Cookie Monster's song:

"C Is For Cookie"

"C" is for cookie, that's good enough for me.

"C" is for cookie, that's good enough for me.

"C" is for cookie, that's good enough for me.

Oh, cookie, cookie, cookie starts with "C"!

[followed by the munching of many cookies]

Then we sang our story song, adding a "say yum-yum!" verse, and read our first story, The Best Mouse Cookie by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond. The kids recognized the mouse right away from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. 

I like this book because (1) it's a little shorter and works well for less attentive audiences, (2) they likely haven't heard it before, and (3) it shows Mouse baking cookies, which gives lots of opportunities for interaction with questions and motions, as well as deductive reasoning by observing smoke coming out of Mouse's house and predicting that he burned the cookies. It also shows that sometimes things get messed up and you have to start over but that's okay and sharing with friends.

After that we did an action rhyme and pretended to make cookies.

"Making Cookies"

       We are making cookie dough.          (hold out arms like a bowl)
       Round and round the beaters go.     (move hand around bowl, twirling finger)
       Add some flour; just 2 cups.            (dump in 2 cups)
       Stir and stir the batter up.               (stirring motion)
       Roll them, cut them nice and neat.   (rolling pin motion)
       Put them on a cookie sheet.            (place pretend cookies)
       Bake them, cool them on a rack,     (pretend to place on rack, blow)
       Serve them to my friends for snack!  (pretend to hand out & eat)

At the end, I asked if anyone burned their cookies; then we compared what kind of cookies we each made, were they chocolate chip, sugar cookies, gingerbread men, oatmeal, peanut butter, etc.

Our next story was The Gingerbread Man, but I chose to tell it with a flannel board instead of reading a book, because I've never been able to find a version I liked for the younger kids. Most are too long and text-heavy, and while Harriet Ziefert's version is short and simple enough, the book is too small and illustrations dull. All the pieces are pictured below; for more details on how I made it, see my previous Flannel Friday post.

The Gingerbread Man

After that we read our final story, The Duckling Gets a Cookie by Mo Willems. Of course everyone recognized the Pigeon, and we discussed how sometimes Pigeon is naughty and how sometimes he can be really impatient and forget his manners. 

In this story, Pigeon is upset because the Duckling gets a cookie just by asking (politely), but he never gets what he asks for. In the end he gets a pleasant surprise. This book is a fun lesson in asking politely, saying thank you, and sharing.

I followed that with a cookie countdown rhyme I found at "Everything Preschool" and modified slightly, accompanied by pieces from another felt set I made that will be featured in my next "Flannel Friday" feature.

"Five Little Cookies"

Five little cookies, with frosting galore!

Daddy ate the red one, and then there were four.

Four little cookies, two plus two you see.

Mommy at the green one, and then there were three.

Three little cookies, and before I knew,

Brother ate the white one, and then there were two.

Two little cookies; oh, what fun!

Sister ate the brown one, and then there was one.

One little cookie, yum-yum-yum!

*I* ate the last one, and then there were none.

We also discussed the shapes found in the cookies, and you could just make them simple geometric shapes as well. I made two different ones for brown, since I couldn't decide which I was going to use. (I like options).

We ended with a closing song, and then moved to the optional craft that was extra-special today.

Craft 
Our craft was decorating gingerbread man cookies! I kept it very simple, partly due to the younger ages I usually get, and partly because we have to do it in a carpeted space and I didn't want our custodian to hate me.

I used Pepperidge Farm Gingermen cookies because that is literally all we could find. They worked fine, I just would have rather had some slightly bigger and without the sugar on top. They are a good choice for the younger kids because the flavor is a little milder and they are crisp, but not hard.

I gave each child two cookies on a paper plate and about 2 tablespoons of vanilla icing (from a can) in a snack-sized zip-lock bag with just the very tip of the corner snipped off. I also had additional bags of green and red icing if they wanted to add colored accents. Then I demonstrated how to squeeze the icing out to decorate the cookie, and told them to decorate theirs however they liked.

The kids all really seemed to enjoy it, and were proud of their finished cookies, but of course eating them was the best part! I did tell them they could eat them when they were done IF their grown-up said it was okay, but to listen to their gown-up if they wanted them to save for after lunch (our storytime is at 11:00, and it's usually close to noon by the time they finish the craft/activity).

How It Went
This was a really fun storytime, and it had the holiday feel for those who wanted it, but was still neutral and included everyone. The theme also really got the kids attention and I had much more enthusiastic participation all around than I sometimes get; even the shy kids would say what kind of cookie they liked.

I think having stories that had characters they were familiar with, but hadn't necessarily heard the story before helped get them engaged, too. I've made felt sets before, but this was the first time I'd used one to tell a story as opposed to using with a rhyme or song, and I really need to start doing that more. It's a great way to adapt a story to a younger age group and shorter time frame/attention span. This was one of my more detailed sets and I was really pleased with how it turned out, and the kids seemed to like it, too.

Of course the special craft was a huge hit. It was interesting to see the dynamics. Some parents just let the kids figure it out for themselves, some had to help them make at least one cookie look "right" but then let the child do the second one. Some kids did put some intentional design into their cookies, and others just squeezed icing on randomly. Piping icing is actually good pre-writing practice as it works on muscle strength and coordination in the hands and fingers, and fine motor skills.

The biggest surprise was how little mess there was afterward! I just had to pick two pieces of cookie of the floor, and wipe down the tables, which just had a few crumbs and smudges!

"C" Is For Cookie

I've toyed with the idea of a cookie-themed storytime for a while since I knew of several great books, and who doesn't like cookies, but I was hesitant out of fear that it would be cruel to talk so much about cookies and not give the kids any (allergy concerns as it was at daycare, not with parents). But after several people assured me they had done it without issues, and I came up with the idea of introducing it with the focus on the letter "C" instead of cookies, I decided to give it a try. I also made a rare discovery in the process (more on that at the end).

We started with our welcome song, then I told them we were going to talk about the letter "C" and showed them an uppercase and lowercase "Cc". I had them make a "C"-shape by curling their fingers and thumb, then by drawing in the air with their finger. We talked about the two sounds the letter "C" makes, the "s" sound as in "circle" and the "k" sound, like in "Colby" and "Carlton" (we actually used two names of kids in the class). Then I showed them examples of other "C" words, ending with "C is for Cookie".

"Hey, I know a song like that, and I bet you do, too! It's sung by my favorite monster, Cookie Monster!"

"C" Is For Cookie

"C" is for cookie, that's good enough for me.

"C" is for cookie, that's good enough for me.

"C" is for cookie, that's good enough for me,

Oh, cookie, cookie, cookie starts with "C"!

[followed by munching of many pretend cookies]

I didn't show them the video, but just in case you're not familiar with the song or *gasp* the character, here it is:

We followed that with our "story song" and then read our first book, Who Ate All The Cookie Dough? by Karen Beaumont and Eugene Yelchin (uncle of the late actor Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov in the latest Star Trek re-boot). I have to say, I love this book; it's the one that originally gave me the idea for a cookie theme the first time I read it. Mama Kangaroo made some cookie dough, but when she was ready to bake cookies, it was all gone! 

She goes around asking all the other animals if they know who ate it, but the culprit turns out to be closer to home. I like that this book is relatively short and simple, and has a nice rhythm with lots of repetition to encourage the audience to join in. This is a great book for the older toddler-younger preschooler crowd. Plus, I can definitely relate to eating cookie dough ;)

After that, we pretended to make cookies, using an action rhyme I originally found at Sunflower Storytime, but this time I modified it a little bit. I start by telling the kids we are going to pretend to make cookies, so to get out their bowls (hold arm out as if holding a big bowl) and first add butter, then sugar, and then crack two eggs and add them, but to be very careful not get the shells in! Then we proceed with the poem, continuing to act it out.

Making Cookies

          We are making cookie dough.          (hold out arms like a bowl)
          Round and round the beaters go.     (move hand around bowl, twirling finger)
          Add some flour; just 2 cups.            (dump in 2 cups)
          Stir and stir the batter up.               (stirring motion)
          Roll them, cut them nice and neat.   (rolling pin motion)
          Put them on a cookie sheet.            (place pretend cookies)
          Bake them, cool them on a rack,     (pretend to place on rack, blow)
          Serve them to my friends for snack!    (pretend to hand out & eat)

At the end, we compared what kind of cookies we each made, were they chocolate chip, sugar cookies, gingerbread men, oatmeal, peanut butter, etc.

The next book was Keisha Cane and Her Very Sweet Tooth by Ashley Foxx and April Foxx. Keisha Cane's love of sweets often gets her into trouble. One night, she sneaks out of bed and tries to steal some cookies out of the cookie jar, but accidentally breaks it! Knowing she will be in trouble, she tries to clean up the mess, but in the process makes one mess after the other!

I just happened to find this in our catalog when I searched for juvenile fiction with the subject of "cookie". It turned out to be a great book with humor and drama, lovely cut-paper collage illustrations, and entertaining but with a good message. Plus it featured a character of color, which was a great bonus. I also loved the way the author had Keisha's mother call her by just her first name when she found the first mess, first and last name when she found the second mess, and all three names when she found the last mess! Unfortunately this was the only copy in our whole system, and was coming apart. 

Upon looking to buy a replacement, I discovered it was a unicorn! That rare, self-published book that was good, and had met the criteria to be included in the collection; all the others I've seen have been pretty bad. It was great to see a good self-published book, but sad that there are no more copies available for purchase anywhere. It was written by a Memphis kindergarten teacher who was frustrated at not being able to find many good books for her students with characters that looked like them. I hope this author finds a publisher and re-releases this book in hardback, and continues to write more.

After we read the last book, we sang our closing song and passed out stickers. [I had also brought If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laura Numeroff and The Duckling Gets A Cookie!? by Mo Willems, but decided two books was enough for today since the second was on the longer side.]

How It Went
Despite my initial qualms, this storytime went really well, and no one was disappointed I didn't have cookies for them; in fact, no one even asked! I think introducing the theme as being the letter "Cc" helped, and we made a big show of eating pretend cookies at the end of both the song and the action rhyme, both of which they really enjoyed.

Both books worked very well. As I expected, Who Ate All The Cookie Dough? was perfect for them. With it's short length and simple rhyming and repeating text, they couldn't help but start saying it along with me, and they liked seeing all the different animals. Most of them thought the monkey ate it, but I think one observant child noticed the joey's ears peeking out above Mama Kangaroo's apron. This is a must-have for a storytime collection.

Keisha Cane had just a little too much text on a few pages for some of them, but overall they really seemed to like this book, and recognized Keisha was just digging herself deeper and deeper in trouble. When she first reached into the cookie jar, once little boy said dramatically, "She's gonna get a whoopin'!" Some of them could hardly stand the suspense, knowing Keisha was eventually going to get caught, and all adults chuckled when Keisha's name got progressively longer each time her mother yelled it. We all know you're in BIG trouble when your mother uses all three of your names! 

I think the kids were relieved to see Keisha did NOT, in fact, get a "whoopin'," but rather her mother talked to her and helped her to see that it just made things worse to try to fix your mistakes by yourself, and that they still loved her even if she made mistakes, and even when they got mad at her. I think this is a good message for kids to hear. I am so disappointed to find I can't buy a hardback copy of Keisha Cane for myself, or to replace the paperback copy we have that is falling apart.