Ginger- bread Houses... Well, actually graham cracker houses.
This is one of my students....at my school where I teach preschool, all the teachers that teach 4 year olds, do these graham cracker gingerbread houses. Now, I didn't realize what this all entails.
First of all the kids don't put the actual houses together, I do. It is a mind numbing task let me tell you! It takes about 2 full hours to make about 10 houses! You have to "glue" (with icing, of course) the houses to the plate by propping the two sides up, then the two ends, then you have to carefully ice both sides of the roof so that when you put the middle together there is icing ready to stick the tippy top together as well as the bottoms of each roof to the sides. Then you have to cut out perfect little triangles to put on either end to match up the ends with the roof. All this is with icing that is ready to change to cement any second! Whew, talk about a job! And this of course is all on my own time, not paid. So, you may ask, why? Why would you put yourself through this? And before my kids did these, I thought to myself, "never again! No way I am doing this next year!" But then you look at this little girl and the smile on her face. She is the reason these teachers torture themselves making these little houses year after year. Every year they say never again, and every year after the kids love decorating them, they think, "well, maybe...."
I have to admit, the kids really enjoyed it! And I enjoyed watching their excited little faces as they put m&m's, skittles, and mini marshmellows all over the houses. I didn't need a candied house for a treat, just watching them was sweet enough for me!
3 comments:
Why do you use icing to glue them together? Aren't the kids eating the craft paste anyway?
now, now, they are good kids and you are showing your age! We don't use "paste" anymore! We use white glue (elmers) or we use O-glue (a clear glue) so icing was our only option! Hee hee.
Yours are more labor-intensive than mine are.
First off, mine are only half that size. I break the graham cracker in half, so I'm working with squares. I stick one on the plate on the bottom and use it to create the sides - it's easier to ice against something & it helps prop the sides up.
Also, I do mine assembly-line style. Stick all 10 bottoms on, go back to the first one & put up 2 sides to make a corner and do that to all the rest, then go back to the first one and put up the other 2 sides to make an open box, continue thru all the others.
I take a bag of royal icing to the school, and let the kids hold the roof parts in place (that way they get to "make" part of it and I'm not holding roofs forever).
I don't fill in the triangle. I let the kids use that space to put the extra treats in :)
I keep it really simple at school. Myrna has let her teenagers create a whole 'gingerbread' village before. That was pretty cool too. Maybe K & C will want to do that when they're a little older?
Nice work teach!
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