Kids STEM Activities: Gingerbread House
Kids STEM Activity: Constructing a Gingerbread House
Happy national gingerbread house day! Yea…. that’s a thing! It is observed annually on December 12th. This is a great excuse to let your kids try and construct their very own gingerbread house; no kits, just good old-fashioned graham crackers, icing, and all the fixings. Your child will jump at the chance to participate in this super simple STEM activity and have a great time while working hard to figure out how to maneuver the crackers and icing to engineer their very own house.
STEM Gingerbread House:
Ages: 3 and older
Type of Activity: Science & Engineering: STEM
What They Are Learning: Exercising their cognitive abilities to figure out how to form, build, and construct a structure out of crackers and icing. They will test what works, what doesn’t work. How strong and secure the crackers are, and how many they add without it crumbling. In addition, they will also see what happens to the icing once it is exposed to air and dries out. How the icing goes from soft, wet, and sticky, to completely hard.
Materials Needed:
1. Graham crackers
2. Icing
3. Icing bag or baggie with a hole cut out
4. Plate or tray to put your house on
5. Candies and other small decorations
6. Gingerbread cookie to add a person (optional)
Instructions:
1. Take the Graham crackers out of the container and fix the icing into the icing bag.
2. You may need to help your child with squeezing the icing or hold the cracker in place. Help them put 1 or 2 pieces together until they get the hang of it.
3. Once they have constructed their main structure, allow drying before putting the decorations on it (this will help ensure their structure does not fall apart while they are decorating it).
