Gingerbread Magic

I always loved the Monday after Thanksgiving break because that's when I put my gingerbread doorway up. I loved watching the kids' faces when they came in to school that morning. It was so much fun! Some years we read different gingerbread stories and did compare & contrast activities about the different stories. One year we made felt gingerbread men and sewed on the decorations ourselves (with a lot of parent volunteers!). Other years we made paper gingerbread men.  Every year we made gingerbread houses from milk cartons covered with graham crackers, licorice, frosting and LOTS of candy. This is what we started with:

Parent volunteers used glue guns and assembled the houses onto styrofoam meat trays. Last year, I gave the kids felt elf hats as an early Christmas gift. They wore their hats and we listened to Christmas carols as they decorated their houses with lots of frosting and candy. This is what they looked like when they were finished:

I really loved this symmetrical one... isn't it nice?

Then we put them all around a tree on some tables that were covered with white chart paper and white cotton fiberfill. We added some lights and tah dahhhh! Isn't it pretty?

 Especially when we had the overhead lights turned out!

Yesterday I finished a set of gingerbread houses.  The pieces that included in this kit are:
• Gingerbread house with a “To/From” Tag on top to be used as a gift box.
• Gingerbread house (without tag)
• House in color with snow
• Sheet of decorations
• House in black and white (to be colored and decorated)
• Sheet of decorations in black and white (to be colored)
• Gingerbread house in black and white to be colored

I recommend you print the houses on cardstock, a thicker paper.

Young children can color their houses, but they will need adult help to assemble them. It would be helpful to have parent volunteers assemble the houses after your students make them. This is NOT a project for small fingers to complete independently.

The black and white sheets can be enlarged to 11” x 17” size and photocopied onto white construction paper to make it easier for children to make their houses.

I recommend the houses be colored with colored pencils or fine-tipped markers. Glue sticks can be used, but double sided tape will work better for assembling the houses. It should be placed on the four flaps labeled “adhesive”.

After the houses are finished, you can make a gingerbread village like we did! Put the houses on a large table coved with white chart paper, or a white table cloth. Add white fiber fill stuffing to look like snow. Christmas lights can also be added!

My good friend Vicky Moore also has a cool gingerbread unit for sale. Go look at TPT for it:

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone!
Barb :-)