Gingerbread Man Shape Mats Free Printable

I couldn’t resist adding gingerbread man shape mats to my collection of shape mats. Gingerbread men are so much fun to decorate and kids can get in there and create fun facial expressions while practicing their shapes.

printable with gingerbread shapes inside of dry erase mat with child's hand tracing them - copy reads: Gingerbread Man Shapes Printable

Related: Gingerbread Man Theme For Preschool

I have a feeling this will be one of those activities that kids won’t want to stop playing (and learning) with. Pull out the play dough and any other candies, beads, pompoms, or other small items and your kids will get to exploring these shape mats happily!

Gingerbread Man Shape Mats

Are you ready to see how cute these are?! Let’s take a look at some of the different fun ways your kids can use these mats. And when you’re ready to print yours out, there’s a form at the bottom of the page to grab your own set.

There are so many opportunities for play and hands-on learning with these gingerbread mats. Sometimes we choose to laminate them, and sometimes we just throw them in a dry erase pocket. They’ll obviously last longer if you laminate them, and you can use them year after year with your kids.

stack of printed out gingerbread shape mats for preschool

Materials For Gingerbread Mats

As I mentioned, if you don’t have a laminator already, it will make your life so much easier to keep your printables in tip-top shape. Here are some of the supplies you can use with these shape mats, but feel free to use what you have at home, or any other little items you can think of.

How to Prep the Shape Mats

First, print out the shapes you’d like to use with your students. The shapes included in the free printable are – circle, diamond/rhombus, heart, hexagon, octagon, oval, pentagon, rectangle, square, star, trapezoid, and triangle.

For children just starting to explore shapes, start with the basic shape mats. For children who have a good grasp of the concept, feel free to place all of the mats out.

Next, protect the pages in your preferred manner. (We know how hard kids are on paper.) Laminate the sheets or place them in dry erase pockets.

After that, it’s just a matter of putting all of your materials in one place, and setting the kiddos loose!

printable of a gingerbread rhombus shapes with child's hand interacting with it

How to Use the Gingerbread Man Shape Mats

Get creative with these! Kids love using play dough with these mats, and they can use play dough, cookie dough, dry erase markers, manipulatives, candies, or anything else that comes to mind to explore the mat shapes.

Have them spread the dough out in the shapes of the gingerbread faces, then decorate them however they want. This could be a great way to talk about emotions and facial expressions, or get really silly with googly eyes.

preschool gingerbread shape printable with play dough covering an oval shape and googly eyes and pipe cleaner decorating oval face

Related: Turkey Shape Mats

They can trace the shapes of the gingerbread faces with dry erase markers, little candies, or any other items you put out for them. See if they can count how many items it takes to go around one of the shapes!

gingerbread shapes on printable insode of a dry erase pocket with child's hand tracing the shapes with a dry erase marker

The children can also sort out different colors or shapes of candies or manipulatives onto the gingerbread man shape mats.

The “I can find shapes” printable makes a great I-spy challenge for kids to find corresponding shapes in your classroom. Then they can mark off or trace the shapes they found on the printable.

Have you come up with a great way to use these? Let us know in the comments!

gingerbread face octagon shape on a preschool printable with child placing gumdrops around the perimeter

More Gingerbread Activities

Gingerbread men are a classic and fun way for preschoolers to explore during the winter (or any time, really). Here are some more activities they might enjoy as well.

Gingerbread Man Printable Book for Preschoolers from Fun-A-Day

Gingerbread Man Number Hop from Toddler Approved

Giant Gingerbread Man Craft from Happy Toddler Playtime

Gingerbread Sensory Bottles from Pocket of Preschool

Gingerbread Butter Slime from Fun-A-Day

Get Your Gingerbread Man Shape Mats

You can grab your own copy of the free printable right here. The printable shape mats are available to members of Fun-A-Day’s email community. If you’re a member, enter your information below to have it sent to your inbox.

If you’re not a member, no worries! You can enter your information in the form below to join us. Then you’ll receive the gingerbread shape mats as a welcome gift.

You can also open the form in a new tab if you’d prefer.

Please be sure to refer to our printables FAQ so you know the ins and outs of printing PDFs!

Preschool Gingerbread Lesson Plans

Want to save time and get right to the learning fun? You can with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, book suggestions, and activity explanations. We’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.

Gingerbread Man Preschool Lesson Plans

This set also includes the following related printables:

  • Character Puppets (in color and b/w)
  • Gingerbread Color Sorting Mats and Object Cards
  • Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Matching Colors (in color and b/w)
  • Gingerbread House Measurement and Size Sorting Cards
  • Gingerbread Man Number Cards (in color and b/w)
  • Ten-Frame Mats 1-10 (in color and b/w)
  • Gingerbread Man Pattern Prompt Task Cards
  • Gingerbread Man Rhyming Sort
  • Ending Sound Matching Puzzles
  • Roll and Graph Game
  • Gingerbread Man Water Science Experiment Recording Sheet (in color and b/w)
  • Cookie Recording Sheet (in color and b/w)
  • Decorate a Gingerbread House Counting Mats for Numbers 1-10 and one blank version in color and b/w
  • Gingerbread Five Senses Recording Sheet (in color and b/w)

Get your lesson plans here:

Preschool Classroom Gingerbread Man Lesson Plans

Home Preschool Gingerbread Man Lesson Plans

You can also find us on Teachers Pay Teachers

fanned out stack of preschool printables with heading that reads: Gingerbread man shape mats

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