Sweet cinnamon-spice cookies decorated with whimsical, happy faces… what’s not to love about gingerbread?! If you’re looking for a fun theme to use during the holiday season, gingerbread is a great topic to focus on. Come along to see some of my favorite gingerbread books for kindergarten and how to use them with your students!

Fun December Themes for Kindergarten

December is such an exciting month for little learners! It’s one of my personal favorites since there are so many great themes to focus on. Whether you’re working on lessons about holidays, family, reindeer, or gingerbread, you’ve got plenty of great options to choose from for high engagement.

Gingerbread in particular is a great theme for kindergarten. After all, a mere mention of friendly cookie shapes is enough to make any 5-year-old smile! Not to mention, many of the picture books on gingerbread are filled with stories of mischievous cookies that come to life and sprinkle a bit of holiday magic everywhere they go.

Choosing a theme like gingerbread means you can count on full engagement from your kiddos as you work through your lessons. Use this to your advantage to aid in thematic teaching activities all month long!

Using Gingerbread Books in the Classroom

If you’ve been around here a while, you already know how much I LOVE picture books for kids. They’re such a great way to tie your theme together and teach your students about new topics. Plus, they’re the perfect teaching tool to support classroom learning and homeschooling alike! To help keep kiddos excited about learning, I recommend swapping out your picture books each month to reflect your current study topic.

This can mean taking a trip to the library, or if you’re like me, unpacking books that are stored away. Personally, I love to read a book aloud with a group of kiddos first and then make it available in the classroom library afterward. Students LOVE to flip through books with their classmates or siblings and retell the story.

My favorite way to use picture books is in conjunction with thematic teaching. Typically, I’ll choose a book that goes along with a lesson we’re working on and read it with my group. Then, we’ll take some time to discuss the story and maybe even make an anchor chart before moving on to our activity. Using a book really helps to tie the whole lesson together and make the most of your time!

Let’s check out this strategy in action with my favorite gingerbread books for kindergarten!

The Gingerbread Man by Gail Yerrill

We’re kicking off this list with a classic telling of this fairytale. In this book, the familiar story of The Gingerbread Man comes to life as he leaps out of the oven and goes running down the road.

Follow him as he runs from the old woman, the old man, pig, cow, and horse, and finally meets a sly fox.

This book is a great pick to introduce a gingerbread theme to your class. Have a short discussion about gingerbread afterward and follow it up with my story-retelling worksheets and crowns!

Gingerbread Man Loose at Christmas by Laura Murray

Next up, this is one of the funniest books in the bunch! This sweet story is all about a Gingerbread Man who has made a Christmas gift for someone special.

As the world around him prepares for the holiday, a giant storm hits the town and jeopardizes his ability to deliver his gift!

Follow along as the Gingerbread Man travels through slush and ice to reach his destination.

I love using this story as the inspiration for some creative writing about gift-giving. Ask students who they’d like to give a gift to this year and why.

Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett

This next one is a classic in my eyes and one of my favorites to read every year. In this book, your students will be delighted with beautiful illustrations as they follow along in the fairytale adventure.

This story follows the classic tale of a gingerbread cookie that escapes from the oven, which leads to a chase through the village to capture him.

This is a great variation of the well-known story and is wonderful for comparing and contrasting with the original. Try making an anchor chart together afterward to compare characters.

How to Catch a Gingerbread Man by Adam Wallace

Have you read any of the hilarious tales from the “How to Catch a….” series?

If not, you and your students are in for a fantastic holiday adventure! In this twist on the classic tale, the Gingerbread Man has come to life and is on the loose in a bookstore.

Come along as he meets other famous characters like Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes, Peter Rabbit, and more!

Students will love listening to this joyful tale before working on other gingerbread themed activities.

Gingerbread Mouse by Katy Bratun

Students will love this book all about a little mouse who is in search of a new home after hers is destroyed.

Join Mouse on her quest to find a home to celebrate the holiday season on a cold winter night. This cozy story will be a classroom favorite.

This book also includes a fun recipe for making gingerbread cookies too, that would be a great cooking project for homeschooling families!

I also like to use my Build a Gingerbread House Dice Game as a follow-up activity for this story!

The Gingerbread Cowboy by Janet Squires

Looking for something a little out of the ordinary to read aloud this holiday season?

The Gingerbread Cowboy is a delightful, Western-style rendition of this classic tale!

In this book, the Gingerbread Cowboy is running away from the rancher and countless animals like javelinas, cattle, and coyotes!

Students will love this version of the classic story.

Catch That Cookie by Hallie Durand

Catch That Cookie is a must-read if your students are learning about gingerbread.

In this book, students at a school must follow a long list of clues and rhymes to find their missing cookie.

This silly mystery tale will leave students giggling as the search continues!

I love to follow it up with my mini-readers on ‘How to Make Gingerbread Cookies’ in small groups.

Students love reading the books and learning the step-by-step process of making these cookies themselves!

The Plan for the Gingerbread House by Darcy Pattinson

In this book, your kiddos will LOVE watching as other students work on creating a gingerbread house that’s perfect for a gingerbread man!

This book focuses on STEM engineering and is filled with obstacles along the way.

The students in the book face many struggles such as the icing being too thin, cookies burning in the oven, and more.

If we’re making gingerbread houses in class, I love reading this book first since it really gets the kids thinking and problem-solving.

If you have a big group of students, try using graham cracker sheets and thick frosting as your building materials!

Follow-Up Activities for Your Gingerbread Books

Once you’ve got your books selected, it’s time to plan activities! As you probably already know, I’m a huge fan of using thematic teaching activities alongside books. Aside from the activities mentioned above, I love to sprinkle some gingerbread magic into our math and literacy activities. By using thematic centers for practicing things like beginning sounds, counting, and rhyming, you’ll be able to target important skills while tying them all together with your theme.

Another fun activity I always include is our gingerbread craft, which allows for plenty of individuality and creativity. Pair this activity with a writing prompt about gingerbread and you can count on fully engaged students this season! If you’re looking for supplemental materials like these to go along with your books, be sure to check out my December Teaching Unit!

It’s filled with fun activities for a gingerbread theme as well as lessons for holidays around the world. It even includes real-life reindeer too! If you’re looking for even more gingerbread books, check out my other favorites here. And if you need Christmas-specific books, I have a whole post on those too! Have fun celebrating with your students!

Save This Gingerbread Books List

Pin this post on your classroom Pinterest board to keep these gingerbread books handy!