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The Gingerbread Man

My name is Wendy Duncan and I am a children’s author and teacher. Today I am going to tell you my own story of the ‘Gingerbread Man’. Then we are going to do some fun activities. First, we play hunt the thimble, then make our own gingerbread number line. After all that fun we colour in our own gingerbread man and then learn some fun rhymes. We will finish off the day with my story ‘Daphne and Stan’. I hope you enjoy the day!

The Gingerbread Man Story
The Gingerbread Man Story – written by Wendy Duncan.  Wendy shares her own version of this very loved traditional tale. After the story children can play:  Hunt the thimble - creating your own ‘thimble’ to hunt for extends the activity and the learning opportunities.  Making a thimble uses lots of important skills needed for writing. Cutting and drawing exercises and helps develop the muscles we use when we write.  Learning how to give directions is also an important skill to develop. There are lots of opportunities to develop language skills too as you get creative thinking of different ways to say hot and cold.
Number Line
Making a number line uses many of the same skills as when we made our own thimble. It’s really important to do lots of prewriting skills to develop our muscles and skills.  Once you have made your number line you will be encouraging number recognition, sorting and ordering. Depending on the age of your child you could add dots for them to count to help them identify the number.  Pegging the number line is also great for hand eye coordination and those all important prewriting skills. 
Colouring In
This activity encourages creativity and concentration. Your child might plan out where they put the stencils to ensure they don’t touch but fill the page or they might overlap them to create more shapes to colour in.  Lots of fun prewriting skills being developed here. Having fun is the key, not staying in the lines!
Rhymes
Learning sequences and that things have to be done in a certain way is an important life skill. Remembering songs and actions can help reinforce sequencing.  Counting songs and rhymes are a great way to practice without even knowing you are doing it! 
Extension
You can find more stories and activities on my YouTube channel.
Daphne and Stan written by Wendy Duncan and illustrated by Samantha Eynon.
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