Little K’s Ginger Bread Houses

My unica ija has been begging me to do something crafty with her two weeks before Christmas and I was really busy with getting the preparations done. I was out of crafty ideas since I expected her to be all “crafted” out in school. They do a lot of it at school already and she mentioned that she missed doing things together. Before her pre-K, I used to do more things with her since she didn’t go to a pre-school. She is doing remarkably well at school which goes to prove that not all kids need pre-K. I have to get a binder for her student of the week and month certificates. She seems more mature than her classmates and she feels the authority to keep the others in check. Sometimes she may even sound like her teacher.

Anyways, I saw gingerbread kits while we were shopping at Costco and I just had to grab one although I’m not to sure if we are going to eat all the 4lbs of carbohydrates, 1 lb of it is candy. Oh what the heck, it’s the Holidays right? It looked like something fun to do.

I was planning to make an activity of it on Christmas eve but when I saw that Little K’s class are going to have a book activity about a mouse building a gingerbread house, it just made sense to suggest to Ms. W (teacher) that the whole class make a ginger bread house. She linked the idea and we were able to get the last remaining kits from the store. Little K and I had to make our ginger bread house the weekend before they did it in class so that I had an idea of how long it would take to build it. I have to thank Liza for her inputs. It took her about 20 minutes with her children but I suggest giving it a whole hour for kindergarteners.

Here are the pictures:
This is the one that Little K and I built together. She was really excited just by looking at the gingerbread house until now she doesn’t want to destroy it. It’s a little kid fantasy to see a house made of colorful candy. She would take some candy now and then but doesn’t want to break the house. We ate the bonus gingerbread men instead. They tasted pretty decent.

PJ party! The class helped build the gingerbread houses a day before they decorated them.

The class keeps quiet when they are being read to. While my co-volunteer Ms. G and I sets-up the tables.

We built the ginger bread houses a day before and then let the children decorate them the next day. It was great to see them have fun with the candy. I handled one table and my rules are: wash your hands before doing anything and don’t pick your noses while doing the activity. The children did very well, my only challenge is having to say my instructions more explicitly. Sometimes I assume that the kids think the same way as my child. But over all it was delightful to see the children’s eyes lit up with excitement when they were decorating.

They had an exchange of gloves instead of gifts.

Little K’s Teacher is the one with the Santa hat(she’s cute huh?) and the other lady Ms. H is the assistant

So there, anyone can make their child’s experience at school more memorable by caring enough to give some input and time. I learned more about children in the process.

Ask what you can do for the school rather than what the school can do for you.

For more information about the gingerbread house kit: CreateATreat(dot)com

Note:  I suggest that you buy the kit form Costco for $8.99, other online stores sell it for $24.95(a big difference).  If you are not a member, you can ask for a day pass and they will gladly let you experience shopping there .