Eating Gingerbread cookies is yummy and fun! Reading about them is enriching….but shopping for the ingredients and making them at school is MAGICAL and memorable!

I set up a “store” in my classroom where I put out every item needed to make gingerbread men (butter, molasses, the baking sheet, etc.). I then gave every child a large brown bag and $3. They shopped for and chose 3 items. A few students used a list that I made, which had pictures on it- and this showed them what I wanted them to buy. This worked wonderfully for my students with autism, as it gave them my expectations in pictures. After shopping everyone was seated at one table, I called out the ingredients and we placed them in the center.

We then read and followed the recipe. The mixing began! The flour flew and spilled and it was oh so much fun! After refrigerating the dough for an hour, the children had fun rolling it and using gingerbread men cookie cutters. They put them on the cookie sheet and then we all went to the oven, put them in- and waited. While waiting with our timer for 8 minutes, we read Christmas books in the library! The timer beeped and the students wondered if their cookies would run away?! I opened the oven and one student ended our lesson by saying, “look, they are gingerbread babies-and they are sleeping!” Our children are precious!

You can download more detailed instructions and printables for this simulated Bakery lesson
from my TpT “store” atby clicking on these words