Face Cookies
d ➡ Do
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View ➡ R
1
About this View-Read-Do Activity
Hands-on activities like following a recipe and sorting ingredients
help children see the importance of following directions,
understand sequence, and realize that print carries meaning.
Decorating cookies allows them to use their imagination to
create something they heard about in the story.
View
“The Popcorn Popper/Oh, Yes, It Can!” #907
About the Episode
Special library guest Karen Kandel tells a tale from the Ashanti people of
Africa in which a yam, a fish trap, a piece of cloth, and a stool all surprise the
villagers by talking. Encourage children to chime in on the repeating lines,
“It can, it can. Oh, yes, it can!”
2
Read
The Gingerbread Man
by Karen Schmidt
About the Book
Once upon a time, an old woman decides to bake a gingerbread man. When
the gingerbread man hops out of the oven, he decides to run away. The old
woman, (and many others) race after him, but can’t catch him—until a crafty
fox finally outwits the gingerbread man.
Things to Talk about with Children
• Before reading, ask children if they have
helped bake things at home.
• As you read the story, pause periodically
and ask children to join in the refrain, “Run,
run, as fast as you can. You can’t catch me,
I’m the gingerbread man.”
• After you read the story, invite children to
create their own ending. Ask, What would
happen to the gingerbread man at the end
of your story? Would he get eaten by the fox?
Would he trick the fox and keep running?
Who else would he meet?
• Ask children if they liked the story and why.
More
3
Do
Decorate cookies.
Face Cookies Activity
Help children make their own version of the gingerbread man by decorating
large sugar cookies. (Please be aware of food allergies.) For this activity,
you will need:
• frosting, ready-made, or make
• large sugar cookies
your own by mixing:
• decorating ingredients, such as:
4 cups powdered sugar
chocolate bits, raisins, gum
1 stick butter or margarine
drops, candy buttons, sprinkles, etc.
2 teaspoons vanilla
• small and medium-sized cups
3–4 tablespoons milk
food coloring
Directions
1. Place a piece of wax paper or
other covering on a table.
2. Prepare the frosting and divide it
into several medium-sized cups. Add
a different food coloring to each cup
and place on table.
3. Have children sort the decorating
ingredients into small cups.
4. Hand out the sugar cookies.
5. Help children spread some frosting
on their cookies.
6. Children can use the decorating
ingredients to make faces on their
cookies.
7. Once the cookies are decorated,
let children try talking to their cookies
and see what happens. Then they
can eat their cookies as you reread
the story.
BETWEEN THE LIONS is produced by WGBH Boston, Sirius Thinking, Ltd, and Mississippi Public Broadcasting. BETWEEN THE LIONS is funded in part by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a
cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Education’s Ready To Learn grant, and by the Barksdale Reading Institute. National corporate funding is provided by Chick-fil-A.
Development of the contents herein was funded in part by the Park Foundation and the Civil Society Institute. This document was developed in part under a cooperative agreement between the
U.S. Department of Education, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the Public Broadcasting Service for the Ready To Learn Initiative, PR#s U295A050003 and U295B050003. However,
these contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. ©2002, 2009 WGBH Educational
Foundation and Sirius Thinking Ltd. All rights reserved. BETWEEN THE LIONS, Get Wild About Reading and the BTL characters and related indicia are trademarks or registered trademarks of WGBH
Educational Foundation. All third party trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Funding for the original development of this fact sheet was provided by the AT&T Family Care
Development Fund.
Face Cookies
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