Sewing Gingerbread Men

"My mom doesn't let me use real needles" said one of my students.

Well, in class, she was allowed to.  We used large regular needles to sew objects on to felt gingerbread shapes.  The children sewed on pom poms, ribbons, buttons and small flower shapes to create their own characters.

We used embroidery thread and taught them the pattern of sewing.  " up from the bottom, down through the top, up from the bottom, down through the top", repeated and repeated.

They were all so different..some had one pompom and nothing else, while others had a sewn smile.  This activity lent itself well to differentiating it to each child's level of ability and interest and gave them confidence as they experienced using a real needle.

I wish I had gotten a picture of the various gingerbread boys and girls.  We even used them to sing a song one of my coworkers, Adele, taught us.  

Five gingerbread men all in a row

I'm not going to eat one!

No, no, no

oooooohhh, but he look so good,

from his head to his toe...

crunch, munch, "gobble" sound

Four gingerbread men all in a row.....  you get the idea!

Have fun sewing and singing.