Gingerbread Craft for Preschoolers (Easy and No-Bake!)
Eek! The holidays are here, and my kids and I couldn’t be more excited! The classic imagery of gingerbread men elicits warmth, silliness, and holiday cheer. This gingerbread craft is a fun, festive, and easy way to incorporate gingerbread men into your winter curriculum without even turning on the oven. With only a few materials and the boundless imagination of my preschoolers, we’ve made some gingerbread men that I’ll be sad to put away at the end of the season.
Below you’ll find everything you need: the supply list, simple step-by-step directions, a no-prep math or literacy twist, and our favorite gingerbread books to read aloud alongside it.
Why We Love This Gingerbread Craft
There are few things more magical than getting to watch your children experience holiday joy. My one gripe with holiday joy is the clean up, and although I would clean up a million things in a heartbeat for my children to enjoy the holidays, it is essential to throw myself a bone every once in a while and set up a low-effort activity that still has a high impact. This easy gingerbread craft for kids is exactly that!
Picking up sequins, pinching pom poms, and squeezing glue bottles are also great fine motor practice, so little hands get a workout while they create. Punch it up by prompting your preschooler to incorporate math and literacy, and give yourself a pat on the back.
At a glance:
- Ages: 3 to 5 (preschool and pre-K)
- Prep time: 10 to 15 minutes
- Craft time: 15 to 30 minutes, plus drying time if you use glue
- Difficulty: Easy
- Mess level: Low with contact paper, medium with liquid glue
What You’ll Need
For this gingerbread art project, you’ll need:
This gingerbread man template, printed on brown cardstock or construction paper (or trace a large gingerbread cookie cutter)
- Multicolored construction paper
- Scissors (adult scissors for prep, child-safe scissors if kids are cutting)
- Liquid school glue or clear contact paper
- Collage art materials, such as:
- Sequins
- Buttons
- Pipe cleaners
- Pom poms
- Gems
Any other collage materials you have on hand will work too! If you plan on using just paper cut out into various gingerbread man shapes, contact paper is even less messy than glue. Just carefully press your decorated gingerbread man in between the sticky contact paper and cut it out! However, contact paper will not hold up as well with heavier materials like buttons or gems, so liquid glue is the best adhesive for those collage items.
How to Make This Gingerbread Craft (Step by Step)
To make an easy gingerbread craft for preschoolers, cut out a paper gingerbread man and let children decorate it with construction paper shapes, pom poms, sequins, and buttons. No baking is needed. Use liquid glue for heavier items like buttons and gems, or seal flat paper pieces between clear contact paper for a nearly mess-free version.
The following steps will help your gingerbread craft run smoothly.
Step 1: Prep Your Materials
- Cut out your gingerbread man template, one for each child who will be participating in this project. Write each child’s name on the back before you start.
- Cut out various shapes from various colors of construction paper. Some ideas are circles for gumdrops, eyes, or buttons, rectangles for shoes or noses, half-circles for smiles, or squiggles for icing decoration or hair.
- Gather and organize your other collage materials, along with either glue or contact paper. A muffin tin or a few small bowls keep each material in its own spot.
- If using contact paper, precut it into rectangles just larger than your gingerbread man template (two per child, one for the front and one for the back). Do not put out glue in addition to the contact paper.
Step 2: Decorate Your Gingerbread Man
- Help your preschoolers select and arrange their decorations for their gingerbread man. If using glue, children may need support with using the right amount of glue. “Dot, dot, not a lot” is a handy reminder.
- If you notice children seeming unsure of where each collage material may go, ask them what body part it could look like or what their gingerbread man is missing. Point to your face to help them see what details they could add, like eyebrows or earrings.
- Some children may be happy with simply slathering their gingerbread man with glue and dumping every material on top. Let them! I love when I hang up artwork and can see the personalities of each child through their work. When every gingerbread man looks identical, it tells me that adults did more of the work than the children did. As you can see, my son chose exclusively buttons for his gingerbread man.
- If using contact paper, peel the backing off one piece and lay it sticky side up. Carefully place the gingerbread man on top, then add the paper decorations. As there is no glue between the gingerbread man and the decorations, move slowly so the decorations don’t slide around. Lay the second piece of contact paper on top, sticky side down. Gently press the contact paper together to seal before cutting out the shape of the gingerbread man.
Step 3: Dry and Display Your Gingerbread Men
Glued gingerbread men need to dry flat before you move them. Paper decorations dry in about an hour, but heavy buttons and gems are best left overnight. Contact paper versions are ready to hang right away and look especially cheerful taped to a window.
Gingerbread Craft Safety Tips
- Small parts: Buttons, googly eyes, gems, sequins, and small pom poms are choking hazards. Supervise closely, and for children under 3 or any child who still mouths objects, stick to large paper shapes.
- Hot glue: If you want to reinforce heavy buttons for display, hot glue is an adults-only step. Do it after the kids have finished and keep the glue gun out of reach.
- Food items: If you swap in real sprinkles, candy, or spices for a “real gingerbread” look, check for food allergies first, remember that small candies are also choking hazards, and keep craft food separate from snack food.
Troubleshooting Your Gingerbread Man Craft
- The paper is soggy or wrinkled: Too much glue! Give children a cotton swab or a small paintbrush to spread glue, or switch to glue sticks for paper-only decorations.
- Buttons fall off after drying: Heavier pieces need a bigger dot of liquid glue and a full night to dry flat. Cardstock also holds heavy items better than construction paper.
- Decorations slide around in the contact paper: Stick to flat paper shapes and sequins, and have children press each piece down as they place it.
- Contact paper keeps sticking to itself: Peel back only half of the backing at a time, or tape the corners to the table sticky side up before children start.
- A child loses interest quickly: Offer fewer materials at once. Two or three choices often hold a preschooler’s attention better than a whole tray.
Easy Gingerbread Craft Variations
- Gingerbread family: Use smaller cutouts or different cookie cutters to make a whole family, then line them up from biggest to smallest.
- Gingerbread house: Older preschoolers can try the easiest way to make a gingerbread house with graham crackers and candy.
- Sensory add-on: Set out a batch of gingerbread cloud dough with cookie cutters while the glue dries.
Add a Simple Math or Literacy Twist
To enhance this Christmas craft for preschoolers, try these Teaching Mama tips for incorporating math and literacy learning. None of them need extra materials.
Math:
- Count the buttons! Help your preschooler learn one-to-one correspondence by pointing and counting out how many buttons your preschooler put on their gingerbread man.
- Sort your collage material by size or color. For older preschoolers, consider encouraging them to place the items in size order or in color order according to the rainbow.
Literacy:
- Support children’s phonemic awareness as they complete their decoration by pointing out parts of their gingerbread man’s body that start with different sounds. For instance, “What part of your gingerbread man starts with the /m/ sound?” in reference to the mouth.
- Tie this activity in with a gingerbread read aloud. Use your completed gingerbread men to act out the story. Run, run, as fast as you can!
- Keep the theme going with a gingerbread man alphabet matching game for letter recognition practice.
Gingerbread Books to Read Aloud Together
1. The Gingerbread Man by Karen Schmidt
This is the classic gingerbread man, with the familiar and beloved story and cadence. This version is great to introduce children to the character of the mischievous yet lovable gingerbread man.
2. The Gingerbread Cowboy by Janet Squires
This retelling is so fun because it is still true to the character and story of the gingerbread man, but with a twist of a relocation, including changing the supporting characters to southwestern desert animals.
3. The Gingerbread Man 2: What Happened Later? by Stephen Dixon
My preschoolers have loved this rhyming story as a follow up to the classic gingerbread man, as it shifts the focus to the fox and allows for investigation into another perspective of the tale of the gingerbread man.
4. The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School by Laura Murray
Preschoolers love this version because it brings the character of the gingerbread man into your classroom with references to familiar places like the playground and familiar people like the art teacher and the principal. This gingerbread man is also less mischievous and more of a critical thinker, which is helpful if you’re working on honesty and helpfulness in your classroom.
Frequently Asked Questions
Prep one gingerbread man per child with names already on the back, and put collage materials in shared trays in the middle of each table so children don’t have to reach. Work with four to six children at a time if glue is involved. Set aside a flat drying spot, like a counter or the top of a shelf, before you start so wet crafts have somewhere to go.
Sprinkle a little ground cinnamon or ginger onto the wet glue for a cozy gingerbread scent. Spices can sting eyes and irritate sensitive skin, so use only a pinch, have an adult do the sprinkling, and wash hands afterward. Skip this step for children who tend to rub their eyes or put their hands in their mouths.
For toddlers, use the contact paper method with large, pre-cut paper shapes only, which avoids both glue and small choking hazards. Kindergartners can cut out their own gingerbread man and decorations, draw a face with markers, or write a sentence about their gingerbread man on a strip of paper to glue underneath.
Once the glue is completely dry, punch a hole near the head and add a loop of ribbon or yarn to hang them on a tree, a classroom string line, or a doorknob. Contact paper gingerbread men can be taped straight to a window. To save them for next year, store them flat between sheets of paper in a folder or box so the decorations don’t snag.
Yes! Gingerbread men work for any winter unit, a fairy tale or folktale study, or a body parts lesson. Pair the craft with any version of the story and it fits right into January just as well as December.
More Christmas Crafts for Preschoolers
If you loved this easy gingerbread craft for kids, check out more of our Teaching Mama Christmas crafts!
- Santa Christmas Countdown Chain
- Easy Angel Preschool Craft for Christmas
- Reindeer Paper Bag Craft
- Fingerprint Christmas Tree Ornament
- The Cutest Rudolph Ornament
- Melting Snowman Craft
Now grab some paper and buttons and see what kind of gingerbread men your little ones dream up. Every one will be different, and that’s the best part! Let us know in the comments how your preschoolers decorated theirs.
