Catch Me If You Can!

Today was one of my favorite days of the school year. Turns out-it might just be EmmaLee's now too! My preschoolers learning is centered around a theme of "Gingerbread" and Christmas this month. I read them the Jan Brett book "The Gingerbread Baby" and now they all have a part in our annual play-this year entitled what else..."The Gingerbread Baby" of course! Everything we do is just added excitement to that festive upcoming Gingerbread celebration....this morning was just icing on the cookie!
We practiced our parts in the play and discussed the story a little more in depth. Then we made "real" Gingerbread Babies....the students each took turns rolling the dough, and cutting out their little fella. Pretty funny because as they laid their cookie on the sheet, a couple of the kids welcomed them into the "world" with a friendly "nice to meet you!" (Gosh my students are the cutest!)

I popped them in the oven and we went on to the next activity of a fun Gingerbread poem.

That turned out to be beneficial because while they worked on it-I snuck upstairs, grabbed the baked cookies out of the oven-ran them across the back alley to my TOTALLY AWESOME, BESTEST EVER neighbor Lynette! She knew exactly what to do (seeing as this isn't our first rodeo together with my preschool adventures! She's such a good sport). On the way back, I quickly dispersed a couple gingerbread cookie pictures in various places along the path from my house to Lynette's and taped one to the inside of the door as a beginning clue to the kids.
Now the fun really begins....
I replaced the missing cookie sheet with another one & a note that said "Catch me if you can!" Back in the classroom, I interrupted those munchkins who were hard at work, and said "Oh no! Come quick!!! You'll never believe what has happened! I went to the oven to get your snack and.....well you'll just have to go find out for yourselves...."
this is what they found and their funny reactions :)

They all hurried to get on their snow boots and jackets, and rushed out the door (due to the gingerbread cookie cutout on the door-the kids determined that the cookies probably left the house! Smart Cookies :)
Em spotted the first clue in the snow....

She showed it to her classmates and they ran on to the next clues....

The last clue lead to Lynette's door, where they begged her to help them find their cookies that were missing! Boy did she put on a show for them! Told them all about how the cookies were knocking on her door and desperately needed her help to hide from a FOX! She went as far as to crush ginger snaps all over her porch as a more convincing story that the cookies were in fact there! LOVE THAT ABOUT HER! She invited the kids in and told them they could look for the hidden cookies....

Finn discovered them hiding under a dish cloth on the table and the kids all squealed with delight! Emma is STILL talking about it 10 hours later.....it was a FANTASTIC DAY and I am so BLESSED with a great friend and neighbor. Hugs to you Lynette! You never let my munchkins down-I adore you for that.