The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School with discussion questions and activities

I had a lot of fun with The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School by Laura Murray.  I used this book for a children's book club book, and found so much that could be talked about and activities that could be done around this adventurous story.

First let me tell you about the book.

I learned that this was Mrs. Murray's first book!  She had been a teacher and this book was an activity she had done with her class at the beginning of each school year!  This is a great book that you can use on the first day of school to start off the year or read it and have fun at any point in the year.

In the book a class bakes a gingerbread man and then they leave for recess, the gingerbread man then explores the school trying to find his class.  He meets the gym teacher, nurse, art teacher and the principle.  I love how the book is an introduction to school and different rooms of the school, and a twist on the original gingerbread man story.  When I presented this book to preschoolers I retold the original story first with puppets, that way they can make guesses about what they think will happen in the book and compare the two stories.

Puppets I made for retelling the original story (condensed) 

Laura does a great job in rhyming and using some great vocabulary words in the rhymes.  I don't think I would have thought to rhyme with "complete" or "explore."  I thought this was very clever and Murray does add in many great vocab words to share and discuss.

The lay out of the book is another point worth sharing.  Unlike most picture books that have one photo per page or page spread, Mike Lowery has done the illustrations for The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School in a comic book style, where there are a typically two to four boxes with illustrations on each page.  I like this layout.  I love that each page isn't in the same format, some pages have three illustrations, some have only one and the timing of each set lets you ask your readers to predict what they think will happen next.

My favorite thing about this book is all the opportunity there is to have open ended discussion with your readers.  There are also many crafts and activities you can do around this book and gingerbread men in general.  Let me dive into sharing some discussion questions I used while reading this book.

Pre-Reading...Before you even open the book here are some questions to get the mind working and predicting:

What do you think will happen in this book?  This is a question that you can ask before reading any book.  Look at the cover, what clues does it give you for what this book is about?  What does the title say about what might happen or who might be in this book?  

Who is the author?  Illustrator?  This allows you to teach the kids what an author does and what the illustrator's job is.

Where do you think a gingerbread man would have the most fun at school?  I loved asking this question and listening to the different responses.  Don't be afraid to ask the kids Why they chose the room they did.  My oldest daughter answered with, "A gingerbread man would have the most fun in the gym and art room. Because they are my favorite places. He'd make a mess and play with the stuff and create portraits and paper-mache" While my youngest chose the playground because he'd have fun playing there.  Let you're child's imagination run wild here.  For teachers you can turn this into a writing assignment for older kids.  Not only where would he have the most fun but describe what the gingerbread man would do.

While Reading Questions:  As I said earlier the layout of the book offers many areas not only areas to ask "What will happen next" questions but many chances for other discussion as well. These questions you can choose some to ask during the reading of the book or save other to ask when you've finished reading and go back to the page you're referring to if you want.

What other ingredients might you need to make gingerbread cookies?     What would you use to decorate a gingerbread man?

The Gingerbread Man broke his toe!  Have you ever broken a bone?  Where can he go to get his toe fixed?  Who could help him?  How will the nurse fix his toe?

Is using the handrail as a slide safe?  What could happen to the gingerbread man by sliding down the handrail?  In my online group I asked the adults to admit to having done this, I never had the guts to and when I read the book to preschoolers I remind them that it's not safe and if Miss Fawn were to try it I'd probably fall and get hurt, but since this is a cookie and he's in a book he can try it and anything can happen.

When he lands in the lunch bag you can ask Do you like cookies with your lunch?  What is your favorite type of cookie?

Post-Reading-Questions: 

Which gingerbread man story did you like better, the original where the fox eats the gingerbread man, or the school one where he becomes part of the class?

What would you do if your gingerbread man came to life?  This was a favorite question of mine to ask because it's completely open ended with no wrong answer.  Asking this in a group setting was interesting to see how many different answers there were.


How would you feel if your gingerbread man ran away?

What was your favorite part of the book?  Why?

What did you think of the illustrations?  This is a good question to ask for any book because you're showing them that they can have their own artist style.

Would you recommend this book to other people?  Why or Why not?

There are a lot of directions in the book, are you good with finding your way around new places?

For comprehension:

Who did the gingerbread man meet?

What happened in the book?  Go over the sequence of events.

Activities!!  

Be your own illustrator!  Create your own gingerbread man.  As the adult you can decide what materials you want used or let your kids decide how they want to make their gingerbread man.

Baking!  Obviously the book opens with cooking and is a clear activity to go along with the book.  Break out the aprons, dust off that gingerbread cookie recipe and create your own man or girl.  You don't have to stick with gingerbread, have your kids help bake their favorite cookie.

Rhyme Time!  The book is full of rhyming words.  I took a poster-board and wrote down several different rhyming sequence that were in the book then had kids match up the rhyming words.  You could ask further this by having them write their own rhyming word to go on the board or list.

Two different games I designed were for preschool and kindergarten and you can customize this to fit your own grade level.  I did numbers for preschool and had kids take turns rolling a die and coloring in the number they rolled.  They had to count the number of dots on the die and find the corresponding number on their picture and color that in.  In small groups they took turns and helped each other.  For kindergarten I used sight words and flash cards.  You can draw up your own outline and do multiplication, addition, or whatever you want to practice with your kids.  If you want some that are already done I'd recommend the lovely Pinterest.

Fill the gingerbread man with descriptive words. This gets kids working on their vocabulary, and is a fun way to introduce adjectives to the class.  Even with kids who haven't learned what an adjective is or are unsure what "descriptive words" are I found you can coach the kids with asking them to tell me what their gingerbread man would look like, or how the cookie taste.  While doing this with a group add your own words as an adult. I had fun doing this activity in my literacy group and sharing the answers of kids and getting various parents and teachers comments their own descriptions.  Doing this and putting all the words together for everyone to see and hear gets creativity flowing and leads to more thoughtful answers.  So while at first we had words like hot, sweet, amazing, yummy, soft we then started to dig deeper and then words like spunky, animated, fancy, sassy, and squishy were added to the list.  Getting adults to participate in activities like this enhances learning for kids because they see the excitement of adding another word and their vocabulary grows as well.  This could also lead to a deeper discussion: What about the word "gullible" Would you say the gingerbread man in the original story was gullible to believe the fox was going to help him?

One last activity I did with the kid's book club and online was:

I love word games! Boggle has long been a favorite of mine and it's great for kids to have fun spelling and changing letters around without the pressure of a test or grading.

Do you want more activities?  Laura Murray has a wonderful website where she shares some more activities and teaching tools you can use to go with her book and check out all the other adventures her gingerbread man goes on!

Want some other gingerbread books?  Check out these:

Stay warm, have fun, and as always enjoy a good book!

Snow in the forecast?

With the weather cold and fall long gone my kids have started asking, "When will it snow?!"  Personally I have so much going on this month the snow can hold off, but I don't control Mother Nature and snow is said to be in our forecast.  With the kids asking when the snow is coming and the weatherman saying it'll be here soon, I've started collecting some books that address this exact issue and then added a couple for activities once the snow is here and one to thaw out to.

Mama, Will It Snow Tonight?
Written by Nancy White Carlstrom
Illustrated by Paul Tong



Mama, Will It Snow Tonight? addresses the change from fall to winter and waiting snow.  The wind turns cold, the trees are bare and the kids are wondering if there's snow in the air.  The story is poetic.  As we hear the same question being asked and the changes that are seen between the seasons.  Fur on animals becomes thick and changes colors, the harvest is in, and still the little ones wonder when the snow will come.

I like this book so much more because of the illustrations.  The illustrations allow you to see that the children aren't all people wondering this same question; a fox and her pup, a bunny and her kit, and then the little girl and her mom.  "Mama, will it snow tonight?" is asked 12 times in this short book, and if the illustrations didn't show the different mothers and show that they were all wondering and looking for the same thing I would have been a bit frustrated with the redundancy, however knowing that it's from different views allows you to have more pauses while reading, and change your voice with the change of character if you can.

The illustrations are sweet and warm.  You feel the love between the parent and child and the excitement grow and feel the calming effect of watching it snow overnight.

When I read this book to my girls, aged 9 and 5, they did complain and carry on at bedtime; "Dad can you read us a book?  Mom's book was too short it doesn't count as a real book."  I have to say my heart was so proud that that was their complaint, that they wanted another book to follow this one.  I will say this book while it's not a board book, I could see it reprinted as a board book and be wonderful for babies.  The redundancy is perfect for little ones (0-5 years old) especially those who are talking because they can repeat after you or predict what will be said next.


Here Comes the SNOW
Written by Angela Shelf Medearis
Illustrated by Maxie Chambliss



I have read this book several times over the last two weeks at the preschool.  The kids love it and so do I.

This is an early reader so the words are simple and the sentences short for those kids preschool to first grade who are learning to read and starting to read on their own.  I like to have early readers even if they can't read yet, but have read the book before, to tell me what's happening in the picture and sometimes the kids like to repeat after me.

my dog enjoying the snow

This early reader is a cute story about being ready for the snow and it's not snowing yet.  I always like to read and act out the first few pages dramatically.  "Coats on.  Let me see how you put them on. Okay, Boots on." Stomp, stomp.  "But no snow!  Oh man.  Did you wear your coats and boots today?  Yeah, me too, but do we have snow?  Not yet.  What else do we need?"  Small kids really love when they feel involved with the story.  They absolutely love when they can answer questions.  It makes them feel special to get to say "I wore a pink coat today!"  Let them have that interaction and come back to the book.

Then it does snow in the book and Angela goes on to tell of activities that the kids get to do in the snow and this again leaves the ability to keep reading uninterrupted or to take a small break and ask the child if they've make a snow angel before.

The end of the book is my favorite part.  Playtime is over and the kids have to go back inside, but they are rewarded with hot cocoa!  Yum!
Reading this book while yes it's short and simple it does get you in the mood for a nice snow day and all the fun that can be had.

Wonderful Winter: All Kinds of Winter Facts and Fun
by Bruce Goldstone

This book is a must have in your library, classroom, or to check out and have at home for several winter lessons.  Bruce has done a wonderful job in delivering many interesting facts that you can use to add to your lessons.  For older kids you can read the book cover to cover, but for preschool and kindergarten I'd only take out sections to share with the class.  Talk about hibernation and refer to the six pages where he tells how different animals survive the winter and how the animals living in colder climate are built different from those in warmer areas.  Bruce has this book full of information but the way he has it delivered it's easy and fun to read.  I love it when I learn something new from children's books and this one had a lot of information that was new to me.  Did you know...

By the time a snowflake lands, it usually contains about 200 ice crystals.  

Be sure to break this book out for older kids in science class when you learn about the colors of light!  Goldstone explains why snow is white, but really when you look at it up close a snowflake is clear or sometimes blue.

There is something in the book for all ages!  There are simple parts of what shapes, tastes, and how winter feels and sounds for younger kids.  Then there are in depth parts of the book that go into how a snowflake is formed and why you can see your breath when it's cold for older kids or children who will sit and listen.

The photographs in the book are beautiful and capture the large and small, microscopic, details of winter.

Where does the "Fun" part of the title come in?  At the end of the book there are six fun filled crafts and activities to do.  These can be done at home, or for fun art and science projects in the classroom.  There are instructions to make your own fake snow!  This is wonderful for the kids asking and being disappointed about when it's going to snow, or for those who live in warm climates who don't get or see snow in their area!  Make your own snow globe, ice spikes, and pine cone bird feeder are just a couple of the other crafts.  I think we will be doing some of these this weekend while we are snowed in!

With how much I love Wonderful Winter I'm going to be sure to check out Goldstone's other books as well!


  Snow, Snow  Winter Poems for Children by Jane Yolen
Photographs by Jason Stemple



Being a collection of Poems this is different because it's not so much a story line to follow.  I love some of the poems in here deeply tho and I think it's worth the share.  Have fun with your kids or your class and read one of the poems each day or one a week.  They are beautifully written and capture the feeling of snow and winter.  Jane's note from herself I have to share this quote:

"This is a book for snow lovers and for those who might love snow if only it weren't so cold and wet and sometimes inconvenient."

That right there is me!  I love pictures of snow, I love it in movies where it's always so romantic, and I like it when it's not an inconvenience of the schedule.  I will happily watch it snow with a cup of hot tea and a book in my hand curled up with the kids and pets, but when it comes to being out in the snow and shoveling and having to cancel plans I've been looking forward to and the cold...so cold and wet, really why do I live where there's winter?  Because it makes us appreciate the colors of spring and warm temps so much more!

This was published in 1998 back before there were digital cameras with high resolution and megapixels so the photo quality was good for it's time but the photos are aged and not near today's standards, but it's important to remember the advances in photography over the last 20 years!  We have come a long way.  If you have a class of older children or high school age kids even, a fun project would be to give them one of the poems and have them take a photo to go with that chosen poem.

Now once the snow is here and winter is dragging it's feet and you're tired of the short days and long nights and how frigid it feels, it's time to bring out this cute book:

The Thing About Yetis
by Vin Vogel



Have you ever wondered about yetis? What they like to do in the winter?  What do they do in the summer?  How do they stand it when it's so, so, very cold?  Well, if you have asked any of those questions then, this is the book for you!

Vin Vogel has created a cute and funny story about yetis and winter and how even these creatures who love snow and winter get tired of it and become crabby.  He then tells of how they ease their winter woes by remembering days of summer and creating their own summer day inside their home!

Vogel's illustrations of yetis are adorable!  I want one for a pet!! He creates the mood of a winter wonderland of fun, to the frozen tundra, and the brightest of summer days and all the warmth to go with them.

This winter if you are looking for a book to curl up with this is the one.  Then follow it up with some hot chocolate and watch Small Foot to get a different story on yetis.

Some more Yeti books I found while searching around on Amazon that I'm putting on my to read list:



No matter which book you pick to read, or weather you're preparing for a winter storm, wondering where winter is, or shoveling the snow I hope that you make reading a part of your favorite winter activities and find joy between the pages of a good book!  

Not A Box!

Everyone with or around kids know how fascinating cardboard boxes are for children.  Kids can play with a box for hours - sometimes the box is better than what came out of it! Antoinette Portis completely understands how a child's imagination works.

Have you seen Baby's First Christmas? If you haven't seen the video it's worth the 3 minutes, I laughed so hard, and the end with the box, it's every Christmas for the first 2 to 3 years!  Those first few Christmas with babies, toddlers, and preschoolers are the memories that Not a Box made me think of.  I love this book, I love everything about it, the illustrations, the concept, the simplicity of it all come together so well.

The Details:

Written and Illustrated by Antoinette Portis

Published by Harper Collins

Awards: Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor

Age Range (according to Amazon) 2-4years

Not a Box is a very easy read.  Each page spread has one sentence, the longest being six or seven words.  It's a great book for preschoolers and Kindergarten, to read aloud to little ones or to build confidence in those who are starting to read on their own.

The illustrations are so cute!  They are simple line drawings in black and red.  I think the simplicity of the bunny and the box is key to the next page where in red over the black outline from before is a new picture with more detail.  It shows what adults see compared to what a child is seeing.  I love it!  As you read "Why are you standing on a box?" before you turn the page have the children guess what the box could be.  Really spark their imagination.  Maybe he's standing on the box because he's the ring leader at the circus.  Maybe she is sitting in the box because she's the caption of a spaceship that's going to Mars.  Give them the chance to open their minds to all the possible things that box could be.

After finishing Not a Box I wanted to go and get a huge empty box for my girls to play in.  At Christmas time they do just that until the box no longer can stand up.  An empty box is just fine, but as the kids get older check out some of these cute ideas on things to make with boxes I've found on Pinterest that I love: box train, a huge castle, rocket ship or plane, there are so many ideas! From play sets to games to useful art easel.  Have cats?  How about making a cat tower?  Comment below what you've made and how it worked out.

Antoinette Portis also wrote a similarly named book Not a Stick.  This one I haven't read yet, my guess is that it's along the same lines of Not a Box, but kids running around with sticks makes me nervous that someone will get hurt.

There are also several other books about boxes that I now have to check out.  I think we might have to have a box party one day with all these great titles:


May your creativity and imagination be limitless! 

Snow Day books

With snow in the forecast we all tune in and wait for the announcement of a Snow Day!  We love them in our house, as most children do.  We start making our plans for what we will do with a free day.  This week as we waited to hear if we'd get a 2hr delay or snow day we read three of our wintertime books and thought we'd share them.  We have The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, Snow Day by Patricia Lakin, and All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle.  There are so many more great books about snow, snow days, sledding, snowmen and much more, but these are the couple my kids picked out to share and review this week.

Snow Day 

Written by Patricia Lakin

Illustrated by Scott Nash

Copyright 2002

First published by Scholastic: December 2004

I highly recommend this book for beginning readers. 0-7.  Yes, I know that's a large age gap there but I have good reasons for this.  While this is not a board book therefore won't survive rough baby handling it's no reason not to read it to infants and toddlers.  We know that all reading to infants helps their brain development.  Snow Day has big, simple words and will grow with babies and it also has colorful illustrations that they will enjoy looking at.  As the baby develops reading skills this will be a first book they will be able to read on their own.  Using large print, sight words, and rhyming it is a perfect book for Kindergarten.  

The story of these crocodiles getting dressed and ready to go outside then learning that they aren't kids but actually the principles is super cute and funny.  I think that is the part that makes this whole book great!  I love the whole concept of the book.  What do you need to wear outside? Where is the safe place to sled? Who is going to go sledding?  It gives you the perfect intro to talk about winter safety.

Scott Nash did a great job with the colorful images.  I'm going to guess that he came up with the idea of having crocodiles instead of people and I think he did a great job there.  You couldn't have someone convinced that it's a group of kids when it turns out to be adults if it was people or even most other animals.  In true picture book fashion the art tells the whole story so kids who can't read words yet can still read the book on their own.

Snow Day Bottom Line: If you have a child 7 or younger OR you teach preschool, Kindergarten, or First Grade you will love this book!

• The Story-line: is cute, simple, easy to read, made for young children, and keeps their attention.
• The Illustrations: are colorful, tell the story on their own, aid the text, are engaging, and cute.

The Snowy Day
Written (and illustrated) by Ezra Jack Keats
Copyright 1962
Awards: The Caldecott Medal

Another snowy day activity: Painted Rocks

This is a classic "What will we do in the snow" type book.  It's a sweet and engaging story about one little boy's adventure out in the snow.

I love how waking up in the morning to a fresh snowfall is so magical to children.  It's so pretty, peaceful, and full of possibilities!  I think this book captures that magic and possibility of a snow day well.  How much fun did we have growing up in fresh snow?  Making tracks, snowball fights, building snowmen, and sledding.  Both of my girls love the part where the boy brings in a snowball and it melts.

The text is more in depth than Snow Day which we just talked about, but it's not overwhelming for children.  This is a book we have been reading in our house since the toddler years.  Amazon says it's for preschool - Kindergarten.  As I said earlier it's never too early to read children's books to babies so pick up the book now for your little ones and I'd say even first graders would enjoy reading it back to you aloud.

The bright colors grab the children's attention and I believe that the simple not super detailed artwork allows the kids to use their imagination more.  What do the kids faces look like?  Are they smiling?  Where does this story take place?  The children can allow the story to be their own in their mind.

The Snowy Day Bottom Line:  Read this for your younger readers before your next snowfall!

• The Story-line: is easy for children 2-7 to follow along with, is fun and full of ideas of fun to have on your kids next snow day.
• The Illustrations: are colorful, imaginative, and help aide the story.

To watch what my daughters thought of both Snow Day and The Snowy Day you can watch their video here.  They each have their favorite out of the two books and go over what they like about each.

Finally we got a good wet snow to build our own snowman, and in honor of that we read All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle.  The kids made another video of their review and show off the snowman we made , be sure to check it out and follow them on YouTube for more fun videos.

All You Need for a Snowman
Written by Alice Schertle
Illustrated by Barbara Lavallee

our snowman Feb2018

Copyright: 2002

This is a cute poetic book about building a snowman.   Again I will say that this picture book works for the same age group of toddlers up to first grade when children are reading well on their own.  The lines of text are short and not overwhelming.

I love the step by step of building the snowman.  "That's all you need..." and wait for the kids to say "No, you need this next" and then continue to read "Except..." It's a very cute idea and interactive.

You can use this book as a great platform for building your own snowman.  I can see a whole lesson plan for educators around "What all do you need?" What type of hat? What will you use for a mouth? It's great for using your imagination. If you come up short on supplies for building a snowman check out some of these helpful kits:


 Barbara Lavallee did a great job with the illustrations, they are colorful, and fun, and fully aid the story.  Again like Snow Day this is a book that kids can "read" to themselves without having to read the words.  My kids especially love the full two page spread of the finished snowman.  The snowman is larger than life and wonderful.  At the same time my adult mind keeps picking out that there either the kids are the size of aunts or that there's some magical element that once the item is on the snowman it grows to be ten times it's original size.  That is just me over thinking the images tho.

All You Need for a Snowman Bottom Line: Read this and go make your own Snowman!!

• The Story Line: is easy to follow, flows smoothly, and is engaging and interactive for children.
• The Illustrations: are colorful, well done, and aid the story line while keeping the kids attention.

For more info about reading to infants and babies please check out these links:
Babycenter: Reading to your baby
The Benefits of Reading to your Newborn
6 Great Reasons to Read Aloud to your Kids

Now there are millions of great snow day books out there!  This has only been 3 of the ones we love, I am sure we will share more in the future.

Comment Below with your favorite snow day book!!