Run, run, as fast as you can!!!

.....you can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man!!!

I started my Gingerbread Man unit this week. Each day we read different Gingerbread books such as the Gingerbread Boy, Gingerbread Girl, Gingerbread Baby, Gingerbread Friends, and Gingerbread Fred. We do all sorts of things with this theme, and this year I added something that’s turning out to be a HUGE hit! My fabulous sister-in-law teaches Kindergarten in MS and sent a great idea to me that I decided to try. I sent a letter home with my students just before Thanksgiving, explaining that we wanted to track the Gingerbread Man across the U.S. and possibly the world. The letter asked them to ask friends and family to send letters or postcards stating that they’d seen the Gingerbread Man, including some detail local to their area such as, “I was eating beignets at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans when I saw the Gingerbread Man running by.”

So far this week we’ve gotten 12 or 13 letters from Colorado, Florida, New York, Louisiana, Las Vegas, Wisconsin, Alabama, and several from Georgia.

The Gingerbread Man has been seen feeding baby horses in the snow in NY, flying across the MS River in a hot air balloon in Natchez, MS, riding the back of an alligator across Lake Concordia, LA, touring the GA Aquarium, preparing food at a WI restaurant, and making cheese at Henning’s Cheese in Kiel, Wisconsin! The children and I are having great fun plotting GM’s path on our map throughout his travels!

Not only did he make cheese, he took the time to send us some string cheese and Henning’s special cheese curds!

I thought it was particularly noteworthy that the Gingerbread Man took time from his race across the U.S. to send us a sampling of his efforts, don’t you?

After all, he’s not known for being very considerate, much less having any sort of manners at all.

So imagine my surprise when I also found this little guy included in our package....

Not only is he the cutest little cow ever but he was also accompanied by a small card that read...

To my favorite teacher, Grandma Sandy

Gingerbread Man

You can imagine how my jaw dropped when I opened it. All I can say is that Gingerbread Man must’ve turned over a new leaf.

Unfortunately, later this afternoon I got home to discover that Dogos has the stomach bug.

(Don’t worry, the bowl is empty, but it will remain religiously at her side for at least the next 24 hrs!)

So Grandma Sandy will be at home tomorrow with her youngest. As I’m typing this, she hasn’t gotten sick again but has a fever and whimpers periodically.

Bless her sweet heart.

While I’m at home with Dogos, you all be sure to keep an eye out for the Gingerbread Man. He just could be running by a window near YOU!