Holbrook Heroes: You Can't Catch Me...

Once we got back from Legoland, we began a week of learning with a gingerbread man theme. You just can't go wrong with gingerbread men. They are awesome. So many fun things to do with them. And here are some of the things we did:

Math:
Gingerbread Man Skip Counting

Sawyer put the 2's in the correct order. Then we counted out loud.

Hayden skip counted the 3s and the 5s

After putting his gingerbread numbers in the right order, Hayden had to
fill out a worksheet that had blanks where the correct number should go.

We used mini marshmallows to find the perimeter and the area of a gingerbread man that I printed out onto some brown construction paper. The boys first estimated both measurements. Then we figured out how close their estimations actually were. Sawyer must have asked 20 times if he could eat "just this ONE marshmallow" while we were doing this activity. It's like I was torturing them with the little fluffy pieces of goodness. Haha!

Measuring the perimeter of the Gingerbread Man

Measuring the area of the Gingerbread Man

Reading:

Of course, Hayden had his weekly Dear Dragon reader. This week was "It's Winter, Dear Dragon" and he did a great job with it! We also continued Reading Eggs, but also included a few activities from Starfall.com.

I started doing spelling words with Hayden again. I'm giving him five words to learn, plus one bonus word. This week his words were: book, good, look, cookie, and December. I'm trying to find some fun spelling activities for him to do throughout the week. One thing I found was pyramid words. Since we're in the month of December, I decided to change "pyramid" to "Christmas tree". Then, I printed out green-filled squares for him to write the letters of his spelling words in. He didn't even realize how much he was writing! Yay!

Of course, keeping in theme with the gingerbread man, I had to order the book because it was nowhere to be found at the library (that's what I get for procrastinating!). Luckily, Amazon and I have a wonderful relationship, and I was able to order it and have it delivered in 2 days. *sidenote: for any moms out there who don't know, you can join AmazonMom which is a trial 3 month period of their AmazonPrime membership. You get most of the same advantages as the Prime membership including free 2-day shipping on all items. Plus, you get 20% discount on diapers and formula and other things if you set up a recurring order.

After reading the book, we made our own little gingerbread men. We sampled a couple. Then we did a graphic organizer using this huge gingerbread man that I drew on butcher paper and stuck up on the chalkboard. I had the boys come up with as many words as they could to describe their gingerbread men (similar to the Halloween jack-o-lantern graphic organizer we did in October). They did a pretty good job this time, especially Hayden.

Writing:
I found a bunch of fun puffy gingerbread stickers in the Christmas section at Walmart and decided to let the boys use them to make their own gingerbread story. Little did I know how carried away they were going to get with this activity! They started off well, telling the story out loud as they added stickers to their writing paper. But then, it got out of control and became more of a contest to see who could get the most stickers on their paper. The story-lines, as a result, were forgotten. Oh well. It was fun anyway!

Other activities:
We did a science experiment using our gingerbread men cookies based on the idea that the gingerbread man didn't want to get wet in the river (or couldn't swim, etc. depending on the version that you read). The boys each came up with their hypothesis as to what would happen if their gingerbread man cookie got wet, and then we performed the experiment. Sawyer thought his would drown. Hayden thought his would fall apart. Here are the results of each:

Sawyer's gingerbread man. He couldn't keep himself from touching it.

Hayden's gingerbread man. It swelled up and floated. Gross.

Another thing we did with our men (that really ought to be up with the math, but oh well) is we compared different sized gingerbread men. We talked about big vs. little, took guesses as to how much they all weighed, which would weigh more, etc.

And last, but not least, was our Gingerbread Man Scavenger Hunt. I did this with the boys a couple of years ago, and Hayden was really disappointed when we didn't do it last year. So, I decided to do it again this year. I found a big gingerbread man pan at Walmart (same time that I found those stickers), and I baked the gingerbread man while they were in bed one night this week. Then, I printed out some gingerbread man templates, colored them, and wrote clues on the back for the boys to hunt him down. The first clue was hidden in the back of the book that we read, and when we reached the very end, it fell out and the boys began the hunt.

There were six clues altogether. Any more, and Sawyer would have lost interest. It was just enough to keep them excited and on the move for about 15 minutes. The clues I came up with were:

Clue #1: I bet you think you are smarter than me, but with these shoes I can run as quick as your Mommy! (my running shoes)
Clue #2: Good try! I was here, but now I am not. I'm hungry - I think a snack will hit the spot! (the boys' snack cabinet)
Clue #3: Mmmmm.......those gummies were good! You know, I will brush now like good gingerbread boys should! (their bathroom by their toothbrushes)
Clue #4: What do you know? I'm still faster than you! I even have time to read a book or two! (the book case in their reading corner)
Clue #5: Ha! You're too slow! Now where did I go? The kitty in the window would probably know! (a silhouetted cat shaped decoration that hangs in our dining room window)
Clue #6: Kitty cat thinks that it's time for a rest. A room for a baby is where that is best! (the baby's crib)

The Clues

We found him!

Celebrating our find with a hot chocolate/gingerbread man party.

And to end this fun week of Gingerbread Man activities, we took a field trip to the Gingerbread House Extravaganza to see the winners of the competition displayed and do their scavenger hunt that they have set up for visitors. These displays are amazing! The people who build these different houses/buildings/trains/etc. are super talented!