Who Says Learning Can't be Tasty?

The story of the Gingerbread Man offered Sayville kindergarten students in Mrs. Heather Gonzalez’s class at Lincoln Avenue diverse lessons that ended with a delicious treat.

The students began their study with literary analysis by comparing and contrasting many versions of the Gingerbread Man.

“We discussed characters, plot, setting, problem, solution and how they were the same or different in each version,” Mrs. Gonzalez said. In addition, the students practiced their creative writing skills as they wrote their own endings for the traditional story.

Literature was not the only lesson derived from the lively Gingerbread Man or GBM as he was fondly called.

“We also discussed math patterns found in each book.” For their Social Studies skills which focused on geography, the kindergarten students and their families were asked to play along by sending in “post cards from around the world,” from the sites at which the GBM was spotted.

“The search was on...,” Mrs. Gonzalez said. “We broke out our world map, as well as our USA map, and discussed his geographical locations and how he could have possibly gotten there.”

The lessons ended with the hands-on construction of gingerbread houses. “We acted as little architectural designers. Each structure was unique and designed cooperatively with family members.”

Building their gingerbread houses was indeed “icing on the cookie” that delighted everyone, including the volunteer parents and grandparents who assisted Mrs. Gonzalez with the final projects and Superintendent Dr. Walter Schartner who observed.