Jingle, Jingle, Gingerbread

I enjoy three things: children, cooking, and holidays.  Last week, I was able to put all three together.  Nothing says “HOLIDAY” like gingerbread, so I decided to make gingerbread houses with our 1^st grade classes, twenty little girls in all.  Nothing could bring more joy than that!  Of course, the motto, “Divide and conquer,” came in handy. I split the girls into four groups of five so that I could manage all their six-year-old enthusiasm.

This year, time was at a premium so instead of baking gingerbread, I purchased already assembled houses.  For a moment, I felt like I was cheating, but as I gathered all the icing and candies and set them in front of the children, I knew I had made the right decision.  They were in awe of so many sugary treats.  They got to work right away planning what candies to put on and where to place them.  They each had very definite ideas of how to decorate the houses.  

Some people would say we were wasting valuable class time.  The children should be reading, writing, solving math problems.  And yes – they have been doing that these last two weeks under the theme of gingerbread.  They also are in the process of writing their own gingerbread boy stories. Their own versions have gingerbread foxes, princesses, bakers, and many other colorful imaginative characters. I can’t wait to read them all.  The engineering of gingerbread houses, I think, is essential to their “maker process.”  When engaged in planning and designing the houses, the girls had to talk with one another, make a plan that was mutually agreeable to all, and then execute the plan in the span of twenty minutes.  This was a tall order, but every group was successful.

They also displayed a great deal of impulse control.  They did not sneak a taste until the end of the session, when I gave them permission.  Talk about executive function skills!  These six-year-olds were masters.  The only way to build these skills is to allow children to play and create.  Sometimes, they will fail, but that too is a learning tool.  The failing allows them to rethink their actions and revise.  And though, they were not going to eat the treats they created, they were excited to see how their houses turned out.  The next day, the houses were entered into our school’s gingerbread contest, and everyone was amazed how well the 1^st graders’ houses looked.

Some of Many Gingerbread Books to Share With Children

• A Gingerbread Wonderland by Elise Rian Cunha
• Can’t Catch Me! by John and Ann Hassett
• Catch That Cookie by Hallie Dumand
• Georgie the Gingerbread Fairy by Tim Bugbird
• Gingerbread Cowboy by Janet Squires
• Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett
• Gingerbread Mouse by Katy Bratun
• Senorita Gordita by Helen Ketteman
• Ten Tiny Gingerbread Men by Fhiona Galloway
• The Cajun Gingerbread Boy by Berthe Amoss
• The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett
• The Gingerbread Bear by Robert Dennis
• The Gingerbread Boy by Richard Egielski
• The Gingerbread Boy Who Didn’t Run Away by Vickie King
• The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst
• The Gingerbread Kid Goes to School by Joan Holub
• The Gingerbread Man by Paul Galdone (traditional story)
• The Gingerbread Man 2: What Happened Next by Stephen Dixon
• The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstrup
• The Gingerbread Rabbit by Randall Jarrell
• The Gurabia Man: The Armenian Version by Talent Dadia White
• The Matzo Ball Boy by Lisa Schulman
• The Musubi Man: Hawai’i’s Gingerbread Man by Sandi Takayam
• The Runaway Latkes by Leslie Kimmelman
• The Runaway Pancake by Mairi Mackinnon
• The Runaway Rice Cake by Ying Chang Compestine
• The Runaway Tortilla by Eric A. Kimmel
• The Runaway Wok by Ying Chang Compestine
• The Sourdough Man: An Alaskan Folktale by Cherie Stihler
• Tough Cookie: A Christmas Story by Edward Hemingway