Summary: An old lady and little boy were baking and decided to make the biggest gingerbread man ever. They put the gingerbread man in the oven and started to hear banging inside the oven. The gingerbread man escaped and ran out the house chanting “Run! Run! As fast as you can! You can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread man.” Each time he would pass either an animal or human he would chant the saying. It was true until the fox tricked him and gobbled the gingerbread man up.

Personal Reaction: It shows the kids not to be overly confident and rude to others. It also shows that being mean to others will catch up to you.

Classroom Extension:
1. Students can make their own gingerbread man.
2. As the teacher reads, the children can chant “Run! Run! As fast as you can! You can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread man.” ( )

In this story, the little boy must behave and help the old woman in order to make something special in the kitchen. He chose the Gingerbread Man recipe, and put extreme effort into even the smallest details. While baking, the Gingerbread Man burst from the oven and began his journey. He passed a lazy, resting man, a black cat, a snarling dog, a field of munching cows, and landed right into the jaws of a sly fox.
The Gingerbread Man is a classic story that holds a big place in my heart. My grandmother used to read this story for me when I was a child, and when she would close the book, she would ask me what I thought the moral of the story was. I always believed it was obviously that I must be good like the little boy so I too could bake something special!!Wrong! She explained that the moral lies in the lesson the Gingerbread Man learned from the sly fox about how naughty it is to try and use others after being mean to them.
I would have my younger students decorate their own "Gingerbread Men" out of construction paper, and then share their projects with the class. My older students could be instructed to continue the story as if the Gingerbread Man HAD survived the attack of the fox. ( )