You Can't Catch Me!

Today's Yesterday's Christmas Countdown Activity:  "Make a Gingerbread Man" 

Since making a Gingerbread Man isn't much different than making Christmas cookies {which we still have to do}, I thought it might be fun to make the Gingerbread Man run away!  This isn't a new idea...in fact, I did it several times while I was teaching Kindergarten!  But it does take a bit of planning...

During the day, we read The Gingerbread Boy, The Gingerbread Man and The Gingerbread Baby {not pictured, although I wasn't going to 'picture' any of them until I found this while uploading pictures today!  L must have taken it, pretty good, right?  Ignore the messy counter or just refer to this post, ahem!} after which L said, "I wonder if our gingerbread man will run away?!"

After supper, I made and rolled out some gingerbread dough and cut it into the shape of a gingerbread man.  Unfortunately, we couldn't transfer him to the pan in one piece so I ended up rolling it out again on the cookie pan and cutting him out there!  ;-)

L helped me decorate him {we used decorating gel so we could bake him already decorated!} and then we popped him in the oven.  That's when D took the kids downstairs to the playroom while I 'cleaned up' {read: ran around hanging clues} and waited for the man to bake so I could move him to his 'hiding spot' and race downstairs with an empty pan saying, "The pan is empty, the gingerbread man must have run away!  But he left this clue...Run, run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the Gingerbread Man!  I've run to the place where you take a bath."

We found clues in the bathroom (I've run to the place where your mom and dad sleep), mom and dad's bedroom (I've run to the place where you wash and dry clothes)...

the laundry room (I've run to the place where you have quiet time) and L's quiet time room (I've run to those yummy smelling gingerbread houses!)...

before 'catching' him hiding under a dish towel near our gingerbread houses!  He must have run fast because he was all cracked up (I had a hard time getting him off the pan, too!)! 

Once we found him, we had to eat him before he ran away again! 

This was a fun family activity!  L was all about it and I Man (who D carried around so he could keep up) was pretty into it, too!  L didn't have as many questions as my Kindergarteners used to, asking only, "if we make another one will he run away too?" and "how did he hang those clues up?  Maybe he found our tape and used some!"  :-)