Avoid sticky icing and gingerbread messes by making your own holiday gingerbread house from paper, glitter glue and our R21800 Plox® materials! You can paste students’ completed gingerbread houses along a seasonal decorations wall in your classroom to make a mural!
You’ll need:
• Glue
• Scissors
• Glitter glue
• Markers
• Classroom bowls
Before you begin, open up your package of Plox® materials and remove the colors that will go best with your gingerbread house, such as red, white, blue, green or yellow. For this activity, I chose to use the colors red, green and white to mimic the frosting on the gingerbread house trimmings. It’s best to use classroom bowls to contain these materials and keep them organized as you work. Select two sheets of the R15233 Skintone Paper to use for the main walls of the gingerbread house.
Take one sheet of the R15233 Skintone Craft Paper to use as the main wall of the gingerbread house. Turn the paper so that the short sides are at the top and bottom edges of the paper. Cut a 1″ strip across the bottom edge of the sheet of paper. This will flatten the look of the wall.
With the second sheet of R15233 Skintone Craft Paper, you will make the roof of the gingerbread house. Orient this sheet of paper the same way as you did for the main wall of the gingerbread house then fold it vertically in half. Unfold and cut the sheet of paper along the half-way fold line so that you are left with one long rectangle.
Fold the sheet of paper a second time, this time horizontally in half. Fold in the top righthand corner of the folded paper. Unfold the corner, then cut along its fold line.
Unfold the whole paper to reveal a shape that looks like a pair of sunglasses or a bowtie. This represents the gingerbread house roof. Turn the roof so that the long flat side is at the top edge and the long corners of the roof will go on either side of the gingerbread house wall. Glue the back of the roof to the part of the gingerbread house that overlaps.
Use markers to decorate the gingerbread house with windows, eavestroughs, trimmings, bushes, a door and any other small details you would like to show. Simplify the shapes of all these details with primary shapes such as squares, rectangles and circles for children to draw. This is a great way to encourage basic shapes recognition!
Take a bottle of white school glue and trace around the parts you wish to decorate with the Plox® “icing.”
Drop handfuls of the Plox® to completely cover the glue. Try not to press the Plox® into the paper as this will cause the material to soak up all the glue rather than adhere to it. Leave the Plox® to dry. While it’s drying, use the glitter glue to decorate the house with little sparkly gumdrops. Once the gingerbread house is completely dry, you may shake off the excess Plox® from the paper.
A great activity for kids to make during festive holiday group parties!
Children can use the people shapes from the R51450 Human Paper Shapes Kit to make gingerbread men that match up with their gingerbread houses! Use glitter glue, Plox® and markers to decorate the gingerbread men. Write each child’s name on the back of his or her gingerbread man.
