Having Fun With Gingerbread in Pre-K

 

This week, we've been reading lots of stories about gingerbread. Of course, one of our favorites is the Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett!

We started by making some child sized gingerbread people with craft materials. After the kids painted the paper cutout, they sprinkled with cinnamon on the wet paint. Smells really yummy! 

The kids used fancy scissors to make paper ric rac for trim with a few simple shape cut outs. One friend colored the eyes so they would be "more prettier". There was a great discussion about adding eyelashes, but the discussion went by the wayside by the time they'd finished with the other features. 

 

 

 


On Friday, we invited parents to come in and help us make some gingerbread houses in small groups. It was a lot of fun, a fabulous creative, sensory experience! I am so thankful for such wonderful parents that came to help. (And they are all working parents, but still managed to find time to help us out!) 

            

 

It turns out that the parents had the most important job of all--hold the house together!! (I promise, next time we'll read the directions well beforehand, and we'll know to let the houses set up for a bit before decorating! ;)

 

 

While the parents held the houses in place, the kids decorated like crazy!

 

 

 

 

I'll try to come back and post a pic on Monday of the one that collapsed before setting while we were outside at recess. By the time we returned, it finally had set--in collapse mode! 

Gingerbread Houses

Every year, we get a few gingerbread house kits to make as a small group project. I ask parents to come in and help. I have some really awesome parents who seem to be up for any challenge I've thrown them---bless their hearts! The kits came in right before the Thanksgiving break and have been sitting on the counter and the kids have asked several times each day WHEN are ever going to get to make them? We counted down the days and FINALLY the day arrived.

I've done gingerbread houses in the classroom for several years, and every year it's gotten a little smoother. The first few years, I had one kit and tried various methods to make sure everyone got to be part of all the stages. For the last couple of years, I've had two kits and worked in smaller groups. Last year, I invited a couple of parents to come and help. (I'll admit having parent helpers was brilliant!) We put all the pieces together and glued them with frosting. We decorated and iced to our hearts content. At the very end, the pieces kept sliding off with the weight of the candy. One of the moms had to hold the pieces and try to prop them up until she could eventually let go. They were definitely an adventure!

This year, I asked several parents to help this year and we were fortunate enough to get 4 kits, which meant only 5 kids per group. I was secretly patting myself on the back for such great planning as I passed them out to each table when a true Christmas (or Hanukkah, if you prefer) miracle occurred. We opened them up and they were already put together, just waiting to be decorated! Let the fun begin!

Since we had enough helpers, I was able to roam freely between the groups and hear all the exciting chatter!

The kits came complete with candy, but I had some leftover candy that I wanted to use up, so we added some of that.

We had a few leftover gingerbread men, so we added them, as well.

We found some lollipops to add. Two of the groups added them right side up as trees or decorations. Two groups placed them upside down, one is an antennae and on the other, the lollipops are a chimney. The finished products:

Gingerbread Fun

Our gingerbread unit is well underway and we are having a big time learning with all the fun activities. I'd love to bake gingerbread as a class, but due to kitchen space limitations and health department regulations, using the school kitchen is just not an option. One of our parents sent in Little Debbie Gingerbread men for us to use instead.

Our first activity with the gingerbread cookies was to place one in a bowl of water and make predictions about what would happen. Our predictions:

1. He will break.
2. He will sink.
3. He will melt.
4. The cookie won;t be yummy anymore.
5. His sprinkles will come off in the water.

Well, he did not break or sink. He did disintegrate, I guess that is like "melting". I didn't taste him, but I'm most positive that he wasn't yummy anymore. His sprinkles did come off, too. An unexpected change was that the color seeped out and sunk to the bottom.

It's a good thing that this took a little time, because I'm not sure any of us would want to eat them after seeing them in the water. We decorated them and ate them for snack. Surprisingly, you can fit quite a few decorations on these little guys! They were pretty and very yummy!!!

I made a batch of gingerbread scented playdough for the friends to use. They've been making Gingerbread men and women all week!

You can even make scented bracelets and rings!