Overview
The children will meet a gingerbread man named Dan and read and write words that end with -an, such as Dan, fan, man, and pan.

Literacy Activities
Dan the gingerbread man

• Place a real or pretend gingerbread man on a baking pan. 
• Explain that the gingerbread man’s name is Dan. 
• Have the children say, “Hi, Dan the Gingerbread Man!” 
• Pretend that the gingerbread man just came out of the oven, and let the children fan the gingerbread man while saying, “We can fan Dan.”  
• Let the children decorate their own gingerbread men (optional).
• Have the children think of words that end with -an (support as needed), write the words on the board, and read them as a class. 

Dan the gingerbread man ran and ran 

• Read the Dan the Gingerbread Man target text and explain that the children will run like Dan the gingerbread man. 
• Have the children form a line at one end of the room, and place a pan (or bowl) with the word cards in it at the other end. 
• When you say, “Go!” allow the first child to run to the pan, choose a word card, and read the card aloud. 
• Have the children chant together, “Dan the gingerbread man ran and ran to get a ___."
• Have the child run back to the line, tag the next person, and go to the back of the line. 
• Repeat until all the children get a turn running. 

More Practice
Identify, blend, and manipulate sounds 

• Let the children use letter cards to make different words by changing the beginning sound(s), ending sound(s), or vowel. 
  • Change the beginning sound(s): Dan → man; ran → pan; plan → van 
  • Change the vowel: fan → fun; tan → ten; pan → pin
  • Change the ending sound(s): man → map; ran → rat; pan → paw
• For each of the words the children make, have them produce the sounds of each letter and then blend the sounds to form a word. 

Read target words in a text 

• Have the children underline the words that end in -an in the Dan the Gingerbread Man target text. 
• Read the text to the children. 
• Reread the text, pausing before each word that has the -an ending so the children can read the -an word along with you.
• Read the text again, fading support. 

Write about the activity using target words and phrases

• Display some target words (e.g., Dan, fan, man, pan, ran, tan, plan) on a word wall along with the word gingerbread, and engage the children in one of the following activities: 
  • Provide sentence completion prompts on the whiteboard to create a text about their experience. For example: 
    • Dan is a gingerbread ___ (man). 
    • Dan is a ___ (tan) gingerbread man. 
    • I can ___ (fan) Dan. 
    • Dan the gingerbread ___ (man) ___ (ran) and ___ (ran). 
    • Does Dan want to ride in a ___ (van)?
  • Have the children write sentences using words from the word wall that express ideas from the lesson activity or target text (e.g., “Dan the gingerbread man ran and ran”).