As we brought out Christmas books the toddlers became excited to read the new books in the class room. Sparking an interest in Christmas and the traditions surrounding the Holiday. Gingerbread men became a highlight in the children’s interest. Debbie planned a paper towel, magic science experiment that included gingerbread men. Oscar was delighted to see the gingerbread man in the water and he said, “ginger man!” He continued to articulate it everywhere. He would invite educators to see it in the books and on stickers that were placed around the classroom. We had a Christmas shirt colouring activity for Ugly Christmas Sweater day. Most of the toddlers became aware and were pointing to the gingerbread man images on the shirt.
Based on their interest we brought out a gingerbread man crafting activity. The children were provided with a gingerbread man drawing, ribbon, googly eyes and paper cut for buttons. Educators demonstrated to the toddlers how they can make a gingerbread man. Oscar and Carina came running to the table hoping it was their turn. Delilah said, “I want to color gingerbread man”. Toddlers were busy spreading the glue allowing the gingerbread man accessories to stick. Quinn said, “I want more googly eyes.” Her educator asked. “why?” She responded, “My gingerbread man has three eyes”. Amaira asked for more paper to provide a larger area for her to spread the glue and stick ribbon. Toddlers enjoyed the activity as it provided them room to express their feelings and imagination.
To expand their interest, we provided them with different colored playdough. We used brown playdough to create gingerbread men and white, pink and green playdough for the gingerbread man accessories. We also provided a variety of cookie cutters for those who did not want to make a gingerbread man. Toddlers were excited to explore the activity. Each toddler was provided with some playdough. When they started to mold it, the Educator asked them to describe the smell. Callum said, “good”, Carina said, “I don’t know”, Quinn said, “Cookie”, Ophelia said, “Christmas” and Oscar said, “ginger man”. They continued their exploration using rolling pins. Delilah and Carina began to sing at the table. They started to sing Roly Poly loudly, with delight, while they were using the rolling pin to flatten their playdough. Then Carina picked the Jingle bells shape and stamped it on the playdough. She then began singing Jingle Bells. The choir got bigger as Austeja and Quinn jointed in the singing. They were trying their best to sing the lyrics of the song! Debbie joined in and sang with them. They had fun singing while cutting different shapes out of their playdough. Oscar picked a candy cane shape and was proud of himself as we was able to make one independently. Amaira rolled it and made a snake. She put it on her educator’s hand and said, “hiss”. As Delilah was cutting the different colored playdough into pieces her educator asked what she was making. Delilah replied’ “I am making pompoms”. Callum and Quinn were interested in cutting gingerbread man and adding details to it. Educator’s provided them with little balls of different colored play dough ribbons, buttons and face features. Callum added six buttons on a ginger bread man and asked for eyes. While Quinn was adding more eye, I asked her how many more eyes she needed. Her response was, “four eyes”. Oscar stamped three different colored ginger bread men and patterned them into a line. He then made a jingle bell, candy cane and a different shape that he called a starfish. Through playdough exploration, the toddlers have learned to express their creativity, further their development of socializing with peers and educators and use memory recall to sing the lyrics of previously learned song.
