Make Math and Literacy Sweet with Gingerbread Activities for the Primary Classroom

If there’s one thing teachers can count on during the holiday season, it’s this. . . attention spans start disappearing faster than fresh gingerbread cookies! The excitement, special events, and classroom schedule interruptions can make even your most focused students feel wiggly and distracted. Meaningful instruction is still important, but actually keeping their attention? That’s the real challenge. That’s why I always turn to gingerbread-themed learning this time of year. This theme is warm, familiar, and kids instantly tune in! If you're ready to level up and maintain engagement, come along to learn more!

How Gingerbread Activities Help Refocus Your Classroom

Gingerbread tasks work beautifully in December and the winter months because they strike the perfect balance of feeling festive and still being highly structured and academically meaningful. When energy levels rise, and your to-do list grows, these activities become easy go-to options for morning work, centers, small groups, partner tasks, or whole-class warm-ups.

Most importantly, gingerbread activities solve a major classroom problem and help channel excitement into purposeful learning. You don’t have to fight the holiday hype, just redirect it! With the right mix of literacy, grammar, writing, and math activities, gingerbread can absolutely keep your little learners focused, calm, and happily engaged.

5 Sweet Gingerbread Activities for Math & Literacy

Below are five teacher-approved gingerbread activities that blend structure with seasonal fun to help you make the most of winter learning.

1. Gingerbread Contractions Google Slides

If you need an engaging, low-prep literacy center that actually holds attention, this Gingerbread Contractions set is a perfect fit. Designed to be used digitally with Google Slides, it includes three interactive activities that help students practice forming and identifying contractions.

What's Included in this Gingerbread Digital Resource

There are a total of 30 slides included with three different activities. The tasks ask students to read two words and identify the correct contraction, read contractions and sort by base words, and type contractions independently. Each slide features interactive drag-and-drop features as well as kid-friendly graphics to keep engagement high! 

And since these are digital and require no additional prep, they're perfect for literacy centers, early finishers, distance or blended learning, sub days, and even small group intervention. The options are endless, and you'll love having a quick and easy activity to teach this topic!

2. Sweet Simple Sentences (Gingerbread Writing & Grammar)

Next up on this roundup of gingerbread activities, I've got a grammar favorite you'll love! If you’re teaching subjects and predicates, or you just need structured sentence writing practice, this adorable gingerbread writing set is a December favorite! It reinforces the core parts of a simple sentence while giving students a hands-on craft to finish. 

How to Use These Gingerbread Activities

In this set, you get posters and visuals, sorting activities, subject and predicate worksheets, writing pages, and an easy-prep craft that will make teaching this topic a breeze. Use the teaching visuals with your whole group and then complete the sorting activity together. I like to do this with a large pocket chart so everyone can see. Call on students to come up, choose a card, and help you sort into the correct category. 

Follow up this whole group lesson with the 4 worksheets to allow students a chance to put this concept into practice. I also like to add the sorting game to my literacy centers for another round of practice. Try pairing students up with a partner to complete the sort again. 

Finally, wrap up with the fun craft and display the final product on a holiday bulletin board! Students will write a complete sentence, color a gingerbread cookie, and cut and paste the whole thing to a baking sheet. The final craft is absolutely adorable! These activities can be used over a few days to fill your grammar block with meaningful and fun ELA work your students will love. 

3. FREE Gingerbread Digraphs Activities (SH & CH)

Nothing is sweeter than a free literacy resource, especially one that hits multiple foundational skills at once! This free Gingerbread Digraph Pack focuses on SH and CH using five different activities. Inside, you get sorting mats, word mapping & graphing, worksheets (with answer keys), low-prep partner games, and a simple gingerbread digraph craft. I actually wrote a whole blog post about this awesome set that you can read here!

Grab the Free Gingerbread Digraph Activities

Teachers love that this set includes hands-on options, printable worksheets, and partnering games, so you can use it multiple ways throughout the winter months. They work really well for literacy centers, whole group teaching, small group lessons, sub days, and more! Grab this freebie by entering your email here!

4. Gingerbread Number Sense Math Centers

Need a reliable math center that students can complete independently? These Gingerbread Number Sense Centers focus on tens and ones, counting sequences, comparing numbers, and digit value, all essential skills for building strong early numeracy.

Easy Prep Gingerbread Math Activities

Included, you get 5 easy prep centers! This set of gingerbread activities includes place value train clip cards, tens and ones matching strips, easy cut gingerbread number puzzles, counting sequence clip cards, and comparing numbers with special wands. I recommend laminating all of these pieces and storing each set in a basket for quick and easy access. Then you can just grab and go! 

These are the perfect way to practice place value to 100 over the holiday season! Your students will love using these centers solo or with a partner. And the best part? Prep one and use again and again!

5. Gingerbread Plural Nouns Craft & Activities

Looking for a low-prep grammar activity that doubles as a hallway or bulletin board display? This Gingerbread Plural Nouns Activity Pack is both engaging and practical. Students practice plural rules for -s, -es, and -ies, then create a gingerbread house craft that showcases their learning.

What's Inside This Resource

In this resource, you get 24 clip cards, a plural ending flapbook activity, 2 practice worksheets, and a Gingerbread house plural noun craft. I love that the variety in this set allows my students to practice plural nouns in many different ways. From hands-on learning centers to practice worksheets and even crafting, there's a little something for everyone! Speaking of which, the craft is everyone's favorite and makes a great keepsake for families, too. 

These activities are versatile and can be used in so many ways. Use these gingerbread activities during small groups, whole-class grammar lessons, literacy centers, or as a fun afternoon project when students need something hands-on and calming.

Sweeten Your December Learning with Gingerbread Fun

Ready to make math and literacy feel sweet this season?! Click here to grab all the gingerbread resources and fill your classroom with joyful, purposeful learning!

Remember, the holiday season doesn’t have to feel chaotic in the classroom. With the right high-interest, skill-based activities, your students can stay focused and engaged, even with all the holiday energy swirling around them. Gingerbread themes strike that perfect balance of being festive, structured, inclusive, and academically meaningful.

If you’re ready to try this out in your room, head to TPT to find all my gingerbread activities. You’ll find no-prep centers, digital slides, crafts, freebies, and more - AKA, everything you need to keep December running smoothly!

Looking for More?

Check out these posts next! 

• Gingerbread Digraphs
• 5 Tips for Holiday Engagement
• Fun Christmas Math Activities & Crafts

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