December can be a joyful time in the classroom — but for ESL teachers, it can also feel overwhelming. Holiday excitement is high, attention spans are short, and many seasonal activities don’t always meet the language needs of English learners.
That’s why I love planning a Gingerbread Man week in my ESL classroom. When done thoughtfully, this familiar story becomes a powerful way to build vocabulary, oral language, confidence, and literacy — without overwhelming students or teachers.
Disclaimer: In this blog, the terms ESL students (English as a Second Language), ELLs (English Language Learners), and ML (Multilingual Learners) are used interchangeably. While “Multilingual Learners” is becoming the more widely accepted term, “ESL students” and “English Language Learners” are still commonly used in various contexts. My aim is to be inclusive and clear to all readers, regardless of the terminology they are familiar with.
Below is how I structure a Gingerbread Man week to support ESL, ELL, SPED, and K–2 learners, while keeping instruction calm, predictable, and meaningful.
December can be tricky for ESL teachers. Students need real language support, not just cute crafts, while classrooms often include a wide range of language levels and very little prep time. Many holiday activities look engaging but don’t build meaningful language skills. A successful Gingerbread Man week solves this by focusing on oral language first, visuals and repetition, predictable routines, and hands-on learning with purpose.
Assessing What They Know, Building Background and Vocabulary with The Gingerbread Man
I always begin Gingerbread Man week with a visual pre-assessment to check what students already know. Since I often teach this unit to K–1 newcomers, I use the pre-assessment to see which content vocabulary students recognize, such as characters, setting, when, where, and character. I read the questions aloud while students circle the pictures, allowing me to gather information without requiring strong reading skills.
After the pre-assessment, we read The Gingerbread Man together using clear visuals, anchor charts, and repeated sentence patterns. On the first day, the focus is on listening, pointing, and repeating rather than answering complex questions.
We highlight characters, repeated phrases like “Run, run as fast as you can,” and basic story elements.
This approach lowers anxiety, builds confidence, and prepares students to work on key reading skills throughout the unit, including identifying characters (real and fictional), setting (where and when), characters’ feelings, dialogue, and story sequence.
Oral Language Through Play
One thing ESL students need more than worksheets is talk time. During Gingerbread Man week, I intentionally build oral language through vocabulary games that focus on feelings and the alphabet. With newcomers and kindergarten students, we play I Have, Who Has Gingerbread Man alphabet games, where students practice listening carefully and identifying uppercase and lowercase letters.
We then extend learning by talking about how characters feel and building emotion vocabulary through I Have, Who Has Gingerbread Man feelings games.
These activities not only support the vocabulary students need to describe characters, but also naturally connect to English language development and social emotional learning. Because these games encourage listening and speaking, allow all students to participate, and feel more like play than pressure, students practice letters, sounds, and vocabulary without even realizing how much language they are producing.
If you need more alphabet tracing, labeling & matching activities for Kindergarten and newcomers, check out this gingerbread themed resource.
Gingerbread in Disguise — Writing Without Stress
This Gingerbread in Disguise sequence begins with clear teacher directions and visual models, with the first lesson focusing on building vocabulary using picture supports and disguise cards.
Students explore the idea of disguise through simple sorting activities, oral language practice with sentence stems, and a hands-on before-and-after craft.
Writing is introduced with multiple differentiated writing options, including sentence starters and tracing, so students can describe what changed without feeling overwhelmed.
By talking first, comparing before and after, and using short, repeatable sentences, ESL students build writing confidence while still engaging in creative, hands-on learning.
Prepositions, Movement, and Interactive Reading
To wrap up Gingerbread Man week, I focus on positional words and location vocabulary, which can be especially challenging for ESL students. Students practice using prepositions in, on, under, and behind through interactive Gingerbread themed matching games, sentence-building activities, and hands-on practice.
We also use simple interactive readers where students cut, glue, and complete scenes as they follow the story. These activities are intentionally differentiated so newcomers can trace words, intermediate students can use word banks, and advanced students can write independently.
This type of learning is especially effective for ESL students because vocabulary is repeated in meaningful context, and students actively engage with the story as they practice describing locations, and reading high-frequency words.
A Gingerbread Man week works especially well for ESL students because it uses a familiar story to reduce cognitive load while recycling vocabulary across multiple days. It naturally balances speaking, listening, reading, and writing, with built-in differentiation that allows all learners to participate at their level.
Most importantly, it helps ESL students feel successful and included during a season that can otherwise feel overwhelming.
Need more Holiday themed resources? Check out this blog post about Holidays Around the World: USA, this one about How to Create Inclusive, Fun, and Engaging Christmas-Themed ESL Activities.
Also check out this article from Colorin Colorado about Culturally Responsive Instruction for Holiday and Religious Celebrations.
If you’re looking for ready-to-use lessons, games, and activities that support this kind of instruction, I’ve linked the Gingerbread Man resources I use below to save time and planning energy.
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