Cookies make everything better, so be sure to grab this Decorate a Gingerbread Cookie Playdough Activityfor preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten. Prompt students to choose a learning center task card and create a gingerbread cookie by following the “recipe”.
Children will have a sweet time while strengthening the following skills:
– Counting
– One-to-one correspondence
– Number recognition
– Number quantity
– Set recognition
– Spatial relations
– More/less/same concept
– Language
– Social emotional
– Fine motor
– Following directions
Print these 10 activity cards out on cardstock. For heavy use, lamination is recommended. Supply students with playdough, gingerbread man cookie cutters, googly eyes, acrylic jewels and/or sequins, small pieces of rickrack, mini bows, buttons, and beads.
Be sure to facilitate conversation during this activity. Ask your students to describe their creations, and ask them which items they used more/less/same of.
This Christmas patterning activity is one of many pattern pin sets that we use in our classrooms. Pattern pins are easy to make, inexpensive, hands-on learning tools. Plus, they are super cute, the kids love them, and they work those small hand muscles!
MATERIALS USED:
– Paint mixing sticks
– Paint (craft or spray)
– Clothespins
– Jingle bells
– Christmas mini bows
– Hot glue gun
For this set, we painted the mixing sticks brown; we always use a dark color for our bases, so that the patterns really stand out. You can pick up mixing sticks at Home Depot, Lowe’s, or your local paint store. We found jingle bells and mini Christmas bows at Dollar Tree, and hot glued them to the tops of clothespins.
You might first introduce pattern pins and demonstrate the concept of patterning in a large group, and then work with small groups of children, making patterns together.
Students will not only create patterns, but they will also copy and extend patterns that are represented on other sticks (made by you or other students). For this reason, it’s a good idea to have multiple bases on hand. Be sure to encourage your students to identify their patterns and describe what is and what is not a pattern.
As a parent and a teacher, it’s always been fun and important for me to introduce ALL of my children to what I loved and adored, and learned from when I was young.
So every holiday season, I bring out the The Gingerbread Man. To me, this first edition Giant Golden Book was the most magical story ever. As a child I spent hours looking over the vibrant illustrations of Bill and Bonnie Rutherford, letting my imagination run away right along with that fearless, little yummy cookie.
This classic book is ideal for reading aloud and makes for an excellent literary-based art activity; gingerbread men and houses. Last year, we used our creations to decorate our classroom window.
The houses are made of basic shapes (squares, rectangles, and triangles) and can be cut out by you or by your children depending on their ability. This year, I will be offering even more materials such as stiff felt, fuzzy sticks, bows, etc., so maybe we’ll see some gingerbread girls!
MATERIALS USED:
– Construction paper
– Our gingerbread template
– Googly eyes
– Ricrac
– Acrylic craft jewels
– Stiff felt/fabric
– Sparkle/glitter pom poms
– Buttons
– Holiday scrapbook paper
– Sequins
– Mini bows
– White foam (roofs)
– Holiday fuzzy sticks
We're Gigi and Zoey. We teach a two-year program (preschool and pre-k), and we're passionate about Early Childhood Education and the philosophy that children learn through play. Our goal is to prepare children for kindergarten while making learning fun.
We hope that our resources inspire you, and that you will share them with your little ones.
GET THE DECORATE A GINGERBREAD COOKIE PLAYDOUGH ACTIVITY CARDS HERE.
- Arts and Crafts, Christmas, Early Literacy, Fine Motor Skills, Language, Mathematics, Sensory Processing, Social Emotional Development, Winter
- counting, following directions, more less same, number quantity, number recognition, number sense, one-to-one correspondence, playdough, set recognition
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. To me, this first edition Giant Golden Book was the most magical story ever. As a child I spent hours looking over the vibrant illustrations of Bill and Bonnie Rutherford, letting my imagination run away right along with that fearless, little yummy cookie.
