After making our gingerbread house yesterday, I thought the kids would like to make gingerbread play dough. As I expected, it was a hit! All of the kids enjoyed playing with it today, and we will pull it back out for our Christmas play date this weekend.
Note: We’ve used this recipe over and over again, and I snapped a few updated photos when we made it for a class holiday party recently, so you’ll see two different variations for this play dough invitation within this post.
FIND EVEN MORE GINGERBREAD THEME ACTIVITIES IN OUR PRINTABLE LESSON PLANS
FOR HOME PRESCHOOL AND PRESCHOOL CLASSROOMS.
Materials for Gingerbread Play Dough
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We started with a basic play dough recipe. To give it a gingerbread scent, we added:
I think adding all of those dry spices made the dough a little more crumbly than the original recipe so I added a little bit more oil and glycerin. That seems to have fixed it.
Setting Up the Play Dough Invitation
If you’re using this as a holiday activity you can use more holiday colors like we did in the invitation pictured above. However, gingerbread does not have to be a holiday theme. In the classroom I enjoyed using the gingerbread theme in January as we transitioned back into our school routine after the holidays. In that case I used bright multi-colored items instead of holiday colors.
Here are some items you might consider setting out with your gingerbread play dough:
- Dough cutters-We pulled our gingerbread cutters from this set.
- Dough tools
- Tinsel Stems trimmed to assorted lengths
- Red and green buttons
- Beaded necklaces trimmed to assorted lengths
- Holiday colored metallic pony beads
- Googly eyes
- Holiday colored paillettes sequins (They carry a multicolored pack at our craft store, and I just pulled out the red, green, silver, and gold.)
- Colorful buttons
- Assorted rhinestones
- Tinsel pom poms
I added some gingerbread cookie cutters and embellishments to our tray, and the kids spent a lot of time playing.
While we played we listened to one of their favorite gingerbread songs. We listen to the full Jack Hartmann CD regularly.
There are many more terrific play dough ideas in this Montessori-Inspired Christmas Play Dough Activities post from Living Montessori Now.
Have you made any holiday play dough this year?
For a fun twist on this activity try making gingerbread ABC cookies.
MORE GINGERBREAD FUN WITH PRINTABLE DINOSAUR THEME LESSON PLANS
Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.
Watch this short video to see just a few examples of the types of activities and printables included in this set:
The full Gingerbread Theme Lesson Plan Pack also includes:
1) Gingerbread Man Character Puppets (in color and b/w)
2) Gingerbread Color Sorting Mats and Object Cards
3) Gingerbread Man Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Matching Colors (in color and b/w)
4) Gingerbread Man Gingerbread House Measurement and Size Sorting Cards
5) Gingerbread Man Number Cards (in color and b/w)
6) Gingerbread Man Ten-Frame Mats 1-10 (in color and b/w)
7) Gingerbread Man Pattern Prompt Task Cards
8) Gingerbread Man Rhyming Sort
9) Gingerbread Man Ending Sound Matching Puzzles
10) Gingerbread Man Roll and Graph Game
11) Gingerbread Man Water Science Experiment Recording Sheet (in color and b/w)
12) Gingerbread Letter Cookie Recording Sheet (in color and b/w)
13) Decorate a Gingerbread House Counting Mats for Numbers 1-10 and one blank version in color and b/w
14) Gingerbread Five Senses Recording Sheet (in color and b/w)
GET YOUR LESSON PLANS
Home Preschool Gingerbread Theme Lesson Plans
Preschool Classroom Gingerbread Theme Lesson Plans
Also available on Teachers Pay Teachers.
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