Kindergarten Gingerbread Houses

Gingerbread house making has been a kindergarten tradition for many years at Abington Friends School. Milk cartons are gathered, house plans are made, gingerbread men books are read, supplies are donated, and friends and families gather to build. The excitement for this activity begins weeks earlier when the children hear stories from older lower school students reminiscing about when "they were young and in kindergarten." Older students talk about gingerbread house making as a favorite memory and the anticipation begins to build in our current kindergarten friends.

One Master Plan

Gingerbread House Possibility

Teamwork

On the morning of gingerbread house making, the studets began to make plans about possibilities for their structures. Questions arise and the children begin to imagine. Will it be one floor or two stories? What will I use for a door and windows? What kind of candy will we use? How will it all stick together- glue? Maybe tape? Can I eat the candy?"

Using their imaginations and fine motor skills, the students begin their morning work creating representational drawings of their imagined house design. The budding architects add colorful details such as flags, window trim and decorative roof tops. This beginning work helps the children to stay centered on the afternoon gingerbread project while at the same time channeling some of that abundant excitement to support their designs.

                              

After lunch, the hands-on work begins as adults and children work together to make a creation that sticks - literally! Experimentation and teamwork seemed to be the biggest keys to success as the building moved forward. A wonderful, special house "frosting" put together by our fabulous family and Home and School volunteers was the secret ingredient that kept the graham crackers attached to the foundation of recycled milk cartons.

Building Houses

The array of candy to adorn the houses was astonishing and a bit overwhelming when it came to making choices!  M and M's, licorice string, Necco wafers, gum drops, sprinkles, gummi bears and elves, ice cream cones, candy canes, and marshmallows were delicious to taste test as well as to build with.

                           
A quiet hum spread across the room as the kindergartners worked with family and friends to make their own unique gingerbread house. Friends compared houses and  asked questions of their fellow builders. This project offered many opportunities for developing and strengthening problem solving, cooperation through teamwork, and experimentation.
   

A simple yet time honored kindergarten tradition lends itself to an emergent approach that incorporates social skills, creativity, fine motor work and even math and literacy skills!

Different Versions of the
Gingerbread Man

  Over the past week, we have been reading a variety of gingerbread man books in anticipation of our project. This was also a perfect opportunity to add literacy to our work as we began to compare and contrast the different versions verbally through discussion as well as visually with Venn diagrams. The students were quickly able to draw pictures in the venn diagram to help us share information about the similarities and differences of the books we had read in class and in the library. Yes, kindergartners can use and understand the purpose of Venn diagrams!                                                                                                                                       
A huge thank you to all who helped make this wonderful project such a success: our Home and School volunteers, friends and family members that sent in donations, made frosting, set up candy stations and cleaned up.  We are very curious to see how our current kindergartners remember their gingerbread house making experience and how they will recount their memories next year as first graders!