Gingerbread House Blueprints

This project was a bit of a changeup from a lesson that I've done in the past. Typically in the past, I have done a one-day project on architecture with my kindergarten students. I usually show them pictures of buildings and talk about what an architect is. This year, I decided to get in the holiday spirit, and make some blueprints of gingerbread houses! After talking to students about what an architect does and what blueprints are, we watched videos of how gingerbread houses are made. We found a really cool video that talks about Swiss Colony from Monroe, Wisconsin and how they make 35000 gingerbread houses every year.

To start off the project, each student grab a brown piece of paper. They were given small and large pieces of cardboard and these were used to print a design of their dream gingerbread house. We talked about details to consider including such as attics, doors, windows, and chimneys. I reminded them that printing is just like using a stamp. They were also given marker caps to add a bit more variation in the shapes they were making.

The second day of this project, I set out all kinds of fancy art materials that they could add to their gingerbread houses. This included stamps, buttons, sequins, and red and white pipe cleaners that have been twisted together to look like candy canes. Students started with the stamps and added snowflakes, holly, presents, and peppermints to their artwork. Lastly, students glued down any of the extra details that they wanted to their artwork.

​I love how fun these turned out! I will definitely continue doing this variation of the blueprint project!