Gingerbreads Back in Action

A few years ago I partnered up with one of my favorite Kindergarten teachers, Amanda Libby, to create an integrated arts ELA lessons!  You can follow Amanda on twitter @mrslibbyFM and learn all about the incredible things she does with her students!  You can learn more about Arts Integration from the Kennedy Center. 

Back up to 2 years ago and Amanda and I realized that we were both teaching similar topics: The Gingerbread Man.  Every December the kindergarten compares and contrasts different versions of fairy tales, including the Gingerbread Man.  Around this time I also do a gingerbread lesson with my kindergarten classes.  

This is a great lesson to teach students about outline and self-control! Student start out by tracing a gingerbread shape and then using a thin paint brush to create an outline around their shape.  They also can add in details using this thin outline technique.  

On day two, they add color, cut, and attach to a background paper.  They always come out looking bright, colorful, and adorable.  

This is when we brought the two different content areas, Art and ELA, 
together creating an arts integration lesson!  In fact this joint lesson has been so successful in Amanda's class that this year we did it with the whole grade!

In additional to bringing knowledge of different versions of the Gingerbread Man into the art room, kindergarten teachers also used this as an opportunity to teach students about verbs, action words.  Each student is assigned a verb.   Using the iPad app Puppet Pals, we helped students learn and illustrate their knowledge of verbs in a fun and creative way. 

I love showing students that they can "Connect to Tech", or bring their physical art into the digital world. In puppets pals students are able to upload their artwork into the app and can move their gingerbread across a background to show their verb's action.  The end result is wonderful and the students loved seeing how their artwork can be used in a new format.

Take a look at their finished works!

Mrs. Halligan's Class

Mrs. Libby's Class

Mrs. Murphy's Class

Mrs. Newton's Class

Mrs. Ochoa's Class