Activity
Gingerbread man: Sequence, copy and paste activities
Gingerbread man-themed tech and tactile graphic sequencing activities!
According to BrainPOP Educators, sequencing refers to putting events or information in a specific order. The ability to sequence requires higher-order thinking skills, from recognizing patterns to determining cause and effect and more. Sequencing helps students understand and organize material they’ve learned as well as helps them solve problems. For students with visual impairments, sequencing is also a critical orientation and mobility skills. When learning routes, students sequence and remember each section of the route.
The Gingerbread Man is a classic book that can be used to practice sequencing skills. The Gingerbread Man book is available through Bookshare. Read the book and then complete the tactile graphic and/or the technology sequencing activities.
Gingerbread man
What is a gingerbread man? Gingerbread cookies are a distinct type of cookie and a gingerbread man is a character from the beloved book. Elementary classrooms will read the story and will often decorate gingerbread man cookies. (Making gingerbread man cookies and/or decorating gingerbread man cookies is a wonderful classroom or home activity!) Pre-teach the concept of a gingerbread man cookie using this gingerbread man coloring page. (To make a tactile version, print the page on Swell paper then run it through a tactile graphics machine such as a PIAf or Swell machine.) The student can color the image or add materials to make the decorations tactile. (Example: Buttons, foam stickers, ribbon, googly eyes, etc. can be used to decorate the gingerbread man.)
Gingerbread man sequencing activity: Tactile graphics
Build tactile skills and concepts while practicing sequencing. Run these images through the tactile graphic machine, then cut the images a part. Discuss the main characteristics of each animal and ask the student to identify the tactile graphic of the animal. Explain that the symbols for male and female (man and woman) are universal symbols often associated with restroom signs. Once the student can identify each symbol, have the student place them in the correct order associated with the Gingerbread man book.
(The correct order is the old woman, the old man, the pig, the cow, the horse and the fox.)
If desired, use three-dimensional items instead of the tactile images, such as a toy cow. Ask the student to place the toys/models in the correct sequence.
Gingerbread man technology activity:Navigate, cut and paste
Oh no! The gingerbread man is scrambled! Can you put the sentences in the right order? Use the Bluetooth keyboard commands to cut the sentence, move to the desired location and paste the sentence.
This activity uses the Scrambled Gingerbread Man document. Download the Scrambled Gingerbread Man and share it with your student. This activity can be done on any device using any document app such as Word, Pages, Docs, etc. The example below demonstrates using VoiceOver commands on an iPad in the Pages app.
The goal of the activity is to practice highlight, copy and paste tech commands along with sequencing skills.
When all the sentences are in the correct order, select the three sentences,”Run, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man!”. Copy and paste these sentences after each of the sequenced sentences in the story. Finished editing? Confirm that the gingerbread man sentences are now in the correct order by listening to the story from start to finish.
Scrambled Gingerbread Man
The gingerbread man ran past the little old man.
The gingerbread man ran past the old woman.
The gingerbread man ran past the horse.
The gingerbread man jumped on the fox’s tail.
The gingerbread man ran past the pig.
The gingerbread man ran past the cow.
Run, run as fast as you can.
You can’t catch me,
I’m the gingerbread man!
The Scrambled Gingerbread Man video tutorial:
Bluetooth keyboard commands
Bluetooth keyboard commands with Quick Nav off:
- Toggle Quick Nav on and off: Left + right arrows
- Read next line: Down arrow
- Read previous line: Up arrow
- Select next line: Shift + down arrow
- Select previous line: Shift + up arrow
- Copy: Cmd + C
- Cut: Cmd + X
- Paste: Cmd + V
- Move to start of document: Cmd + up arrow
- Move to end of document: Cmd + down arrow
- Move to beginning of line: Control + left arrow
- Move to end of line: Control + right arrow
- Undo: Cmd + Z
Note: If you hold the Command button too long without tapping another key, the keyboard shortcuts menu will popup. Use the 2-finger scrub gesture to close the menu.
After cutting, copying or pasting, you should be able to use the up or down arrows to navigate by lines; however, currently in iOS 17.1, using the up/down arrow after cutting, copying or pasting will make the cursor jump to a different location in the document. In short documents like Scrambled Gingerbread Man, the best workaround is to use Cmd + up arrow to go to the top of the document and then down arrow to move line by line.
Aligning with national tech skills
When should students learn to cut, copy and paste? According to the Common Core State Standards K-12 Technology Skills Scope and Sequence chart, highlight, cut, copy and paste are optional in 1st grade, Introduced in 2nd grade, Reviewed in 3rd grade and Mastered in 4th grade. The associated AT Scope and Sequence Chart (for iPad VoiceOver users), has document navigation (navigating to start/end of document, navigating by lines, navigating to start/end of a sentence, etc.) all Introduced in 1st grade, Reviewed in 2nd Grade and Mastered by 3rd grade.
Resource
- Gingerbread Man book available through Bookshare
- Gingerbread man activities: Tactile skills (coloring page, counting and subitizing)
- My Gingerbread House poem: Days of the week post (Another sequence, cut and paste activity)
by Diane Brauner
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