As we continue to explore the Five Senses of Christmas we had fun with our sense of taste (and smell) as we had a little Gingerbread man fun!
To kick start our Gingerbread fun, we read “The Gingerbread Loose In School
This book was about a Gingerbread man that the children made in their class but when they went outside to play, the Gingerbread man was left behind to dry. The Gingerbread Man didn’t like being left behind and went off looking for the children throughout the school….
We used flour paint to decorate our houses and men. To make the paint, I used…
- 1 Cup of Flour
- 3 tsp Baking Powder
- 3 tsp salt
- Food Color
- Water
- And Ginger seasoning to add a little ginger smell!
The children used the flour paint to decorate their houses and gingerbread men. We talked about making dots and lines but some of the children still preferred to make puddles:) …
After each child completed their gingerbread or house, I would pop it into the microwave for about 1 minute (more or less depending on how much paint they added)…
Every child’s gingerbread man and house turned out different….
Some children used lots of colors and others chose to use only one…
Some of the children asked to make another set – I happen to have a few extra cutouts on hand so I let them have at it…
If I wouldn’t have had extra, they could have always used the flour paint on a construction paper house and man shape instead…
Once the children had completed their gingerbread man and house, I poked a hole (with a small screwdriver) in the top of each and added yarn….
That night, I hung them on the children’s hooks. What a sweet addition to our classroom! I could have looked at them hanging there all day but they all went home the very next day…
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Yea! My kids will love this- thanks for the idea! We definitely will try this soon. They have been obsessed with the Gingerbread Baby book by Jan Brett- so this fits right in! 🙂 (I also love how they look hanging on the coat hooks!)
Haha – thank you Pam! I haven’t seen your Gingerbread Babies! I better pop on over!
My daughter would love it! I was looking for a cool idea of gingerbread man decoration! Thanks for the idea, we will surely give it a try!
And I LOVE your birthday cake card!! Super cute!
This is great! Wish I’d seen it last week!!! We did gingerbread men for our preschool last week. These are great! Pinning!
Oh no!! Maybe you can sneak it in:) Gingerbread follow-up week:)
How ironic – this our art project for today! I was poking around looking for the exact recipe for puffy paint when I came across your post! Cant wait tod do this with my kiddos!
How did you cut the gingerbread men and the houses out of cardboard. It looks like corrugated. Love your site BTW! Have a great day and a Merry Christmas!
I cut them all out of a plain old box using a pair of scissors:) Merry Christmas to you too!
Love those squeeze bottles and how each child was so engaged!
Oh my goodness, you just keep coming up with the cutest ideas! Love this.
Congratulations on the Edublog Award Nominations! I’m voting for you.
Thank you so much Susan:)
I love these! I have a lot of cardboard. We have gingerbread decorating on our activity calendar, this would be a perfect alternative to making cookies 🙂
I love the squeeze bottles with the homemade paint for this activity! The gingerbread people and houses look great!
They were super fun and the homemade paint makes it nice because you don’t worry about them overusing it so much!
What a lovely idea – I especially like the use of flour paint. My husband was asking what he could do with J this week and I think this is a perfect idea. Thank you for sharing.
Ah, I would love to see your husband painting with J! That’s awesome!
I love this idea because we have already made gingerbread cookies and my daughter keeps asking to make more gingerbread men but I don’t want more cookies in the house because we both have consumed enough sugar to last us until the New Year. 😉
Well these are great because they are fat free, sugarless, and half the mess:)
Flour paint!? What will you think of next?! Love It!
Thanks Laura – we had the best time with this activity!
Good idea to make the paint smell like ginger!
Thank you:)
What a great idea! And, I wonder if using those squeeze bottles would fulfill my sensory-loving 2 year old’s urge to squeeze out toothpaste, ketchup, etc.? It’s worth a try!
Haha – my students love squeeze bottles!
Love gingerbread men. I’ll be posting some soon too!
I can’t wait to see yours!