1-2-3 Come Make a Gingerbag House With Me

Do you do some gingerbread activities during December? Are you contemplating making a gingerbread house?

If so, I think you and your kiddos will really enjoy making a "gingerbag".

It's a non-messy, quick, easy & fun craftivity, as an alternative to the gooey graham cracker creations, that often fall apart.

There are 8 pages of candy, cakes and ice-cream trimmings, chimneys, doors, and windows, that your kiddos can choose to decorate their paper bag gingerbread house with.

Face the bag towards you so that the bottom of the bag is at the top, and looks like a flap. This is the perfect place to glue the “candy roof” and chimney.

Students cut out whatever pieces they want to glue to the front of their house.

They arrange the pieces ‘til they are satisfied with the look, and then glue them down.

Children then color the trimmings with crayons or markers.

White puffy paint, glitter glue, and stickers can all add pizzazz to the houses.

For that finishing touch, glue a child’s photo in one of the windows.

You can also spritz them with a bit of cinnamon fragrance.

For writing practice, I've included 2 worksheets, where students describe their gingerbread house.

Completed gingerbags make a cute bulletin board too.
Caption: “Mr(s.) _____________’s kindergartners are wishing you a sweet and cozy Christmas.” OR…. “From our house to yours, we’re wishing you a yummy New Year.”  

Click on the link to zip on over to my TpT shop to take a look: Gingerbag Craftivity.

The featured FREEBIE today, also has a gingerbread theme. 

They are a set of gingerbread-themed parts of speech posters. I hope you find them useful.

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.  I'm thrilled to be having the entire family over for dinner and games today. 

That's 21 people!  Woo hoo.  Gotta' get going on the yummies.   Wishing you a love and fun-filled day.

"Good painting is like good cooking; it can be tasted, but not explained." -Maurice de Vlaminck

1-2-3 Come Do Some Gingerbread Activities With Me

Our Gingerbread theme was one of my Y5's favorites for December. (Mine too!)  It's pretty neutral, so if your district is picky about what you can and can't do at your school, perhaps gingerbread will be "appropriate".

A few years ago I designed the schoolhouse fact family packet, followed up by the haunted house fact families, so why not make a winter-themed fact family right; what could be more fitting for a winter fact family than a gingerbread house? 

I've made some revisions and added a few more things to this newest collection of fact family houses.  I hope you enjoy today's FREEBIE. Click on the link to grab it. Gingerbread Fact Family Houses.

I really like it when my activities match, so I've used D. H. Inkers' adorable gingerbread house for a variety of lessons that I hope you'll enjoy.

I had a special request from Erin, in Montana, for gingerbread house number cards, so I got busy and whipped those together. 

I've included math symbols and counter tiles, so you can do even more things with them + games and several bookmarks.

I also dreamed up an odd and even sorting mat, and thought it would be cute to sort via odd or even gingerbread house "address" numbers. 

To practice the format for writing an address, as well as help children memorize their zip code, I've included a "give your gingerbread an address" activity.

When I made up my sample, I wondered if there really was a city named Christmas Cove and to my delight there was!  It's in Maine, the state my son Steven, was born in.  There's also a Christmas, Michigan (my home state) as well as a Christmas, Florida. (Oh to be there right now!)  Simply Google cities with holiday names, for a list of all sorts of sites, with this fun trivia.

If your kiddo’s want to locate their gingerbread house close to Santa, 99705 is the zip code listed when I googled Alaska and clicked on North Pole.  There’s nothing there for over 400 miles though; and just an FYI The North Pole is NOT a land mass. 

This is a fact that you should really share with your kiddo’s, because of the Polar Express ( a personal favorite) and other stories and cartoons, many children think that it is.

The North Pole is a definition of the latitude, which is 90 degrees north. That exact location will find you in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, so I don’t think there’s a floating post office out there.  There are ice flows though.

The most northerly piece of land on earth is Kaffeklubben Island, which according to Wikipedia is 83°40′N, 29°50′W, and is 707 kilometers (440 mi) from the geographic North Pole. I've included more information in the packet, and found some nice photography on YouTube from the weather cams at the North Pole. Click on the link to take the trip.

For the gingerbread address activity and number card fun, click on the link to view/download the Gingerbread Number Fun Packet.

This led to making gingerbread house groups/sets cards.  Cut them up and make into puzzles and Memory Match or "I Have; Who Has?" games. I've included counters for even more options. Click on the link to grab those to go along with the above packet.

I also made a Gingerbread House Slider.  Click on the link for this great whole-group assessing tool.  I've included upper & lowercase letter strips, numbers, shapes, + skip counting sliders for 2's, 3's, 5's, and 10's. 

Add pizzazz to your kiddo's houses with glitter glue, white puffy paint, or colored confetti.  I really like the candy-like look of the confetti. 

You can buy a bag at most party stores for less than $2. Stock up for next year after New Year's when bags are as much as 75% off.

To reinforce patterning, have students pick a pattern and then use a red and green marker to trace the numbers & letters.

TIPS: It's easier for them to trace BEFORE they cut their strips apart.  Putting a piece of Scotch tape on the back of seams also makes for smooth sliding. Click on the link to view/download the Gingerbread House Slider.

Finally, I had so much fun with the confetti, I thought of a gingerbread shape game.  Children pick a partner and take turns spinning, whatever shape they land on, they color that matching "window" on their gingerbread house. 

When they are done playing the game, decorate the roof tops with confetti.  For that added bit of pizzazz, have your students cut their door, so that it opens, and then glue a photo inside. 

I've also included a gingerbread man button matching game in this packet too.  Children play this shape game, by rolling a dice. When they are done, they draw a face on their gingerbread.  Click on the link for the Gingerbread Shapes Up Game.

Thanks for visiting.  It's time to go catch some snowflakes on my tongue, while I frolic as a child with my little grandson Kaiden.  Wishing you a fun-filled magical day. 

"The best way to spread Christmas cheer, is to sing loud for all to hear; and of course whipping up a batch of gingerbread to share." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Do Some Common Core Gingerbread Activities With Me

Even though you may have taught a particular standard a few months ago, doesn't mean all of your kiddos have retained that information.  It's imperative to continue to reinforce various concepts throughout the year. 

To keep interest high, simply add variety.  The easiest way I found to do this, is to simply theme various activities. Gingerbread for December, is one of my favorites. 

In order to cover all of the Common Core State Standard: K.G.1 when reviewing shapes with students, one must include some spatial direction activities as well: "Describe objects in the environment using names of shapes, and describe the relative positions of these objects using terms such as above, below, beside, in front of , behind, and next to."  

With this in mind, I designed the Gingerbread Spatial Directions Shape Easy Reader.

Students trace and write the shapes and spatial direction words, as well as color, cut and glue the shape "cookies" on the designated "spot."   Click on the link to view/download the Gingerbread Spatial Directions booklet.

Telling time to the hour is another standard. (1.MD.3a)  Students can easily tire of the same-old learning about time lessons, so it's nice to switch things up a bit. 

I find that if children can play a game, or even make their own clock, that they will stay more focused.  I think your kiddo's will enjoy the "It's Gingerbread Time" game.  Students work in pairs or groups of 3 to 4 and take turns spinning the gingerbread clock. 

Whatever number they land on, they draw hands on the clock showing that time to the hour on their gingerbread recording sheet.  They also include the digital time underneath the gingerbread man.  

The first one to fill in all of their clocks is the winner.  Click on the link to view/download the Gingerbread Clock Game.  For more time activities click on the link to zip on over to that section of my site.

I've also designed an adorable Gingerbread Place Value game that makes practicing breaking down numbers a bit more fun. Print and laminate your teacher gingerbread house, as well as the black and white houses that students use.

Using a dry erase marker print a 3-digit number on the top of your gingerbread house.  Show it to the children and have them break it down by writing the appropriate numbers in the 1's, 10's 100's windows on their gingerbread house - place value mat. 

While they are doing that, you write the answer on yours. 

When everyone is done, show the answers and have students self-check and correct if necessary. 

You'll be able to whole-group assess by seeing who is changing their mat without embarassing a student. Continue playing by calling on quiet students to make up a number for the class to break down.

You can make inexpensive "dry erase" gingerbread mats for your kiddo's to take home by printing off the black & white gingerbread house on brown construction paper. 

They color and trim.  Pre-cut "window" squares out of glossy photo paper.  They glue them to their gingerbread house for a quick, easy & inexpensive dry erase board that really works! 

I made mini-dry erase boards for my kiddo's to use for fact-family fun or whatever else I wanted them to practice.  They are a wonderful way to whole-group assess all sorts of stuff.  To expedite things, a terry cloth square was also kept in the envelopes.  Each child had their own that they kept in their work folder. 

Click on the link to view/download the gingerbread place value mats. The adorable gingerbread house clip art is by dj inkers.

That's it for today. Thanks for visiting.  Feel free to PIN away. "Tis the season for sharing!"  

I'm off to go get the ingredients to make salt dough ornaments for the first time.  I'm so excited.  Wishing you a crafty day filled with homemade fun. 

"Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed by them." -Henry David Thoreau