Preschoolers enjoy using gingerbread men as a basis for arts and crafts.
While gingerbread men are often synonymous with winter holidays, they can provide a basis for preschool art projects throughout the year. Appealing to children's senses of sight, smell, taste and touch, gingerbread man art projects help children have fun while perfecting cutting, sorting, coloring and building skills.
Gingerbread Man Playdough
Putting a fun twist on a classic art project, have children add spices such as cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg to your basic playdough recipe. Children will love smelling the spices, kneading the dough, rolling it out with a rolling pin and creating shapes using cookie cutters of various sizes. They could even punch a hole in the top and let the dough dry to create a fragrant holiday ornament.
Cinnamon Gingerbread Man
For this project, have children cut a gingerbread man shape out of sandpaper, trace around the outline with white crayon and rub a cinnamon stick over the gingerbread man. Then they can decorate him with crayons and small candies. This stimulates their sense of smell and lets them use their imagination. You could even tie the gingerbread man craft into other lessons. For instance, have them dress their gingerbread men as police officers and firefighters for a lesson on public safety.
Large Gingerbread Kid
For a supersized version of the original, have each child lie down on a large sheet of brown bulletin board paper or craft paper. Trace around the child's body in pencil. Let the child cut out his outline and decorate it with crayons, markers, construction paper shapes and stickers. These are fun to hang in a row in a classroom or playroom. Have children guess which child made each gingerbread kid. Use this project for a lesson in comparisons: Which child is tallest? Who has the smallest feet?
Gingerbread House
Every gingerbread man needs a place to call home, and this house is finger-licking good. After gluing the spouts of a small milk carton shut, children will use icing to glue graham crackers to the sides of the carton and decorate the cracker "walls" with more icing and small candies. The icing should harden within a couple of hours. Consider making a gingerbread village to display on a table. For an extra challenge, stack more than one milk carton to make a two-story house or office building. Have children work on their houses in pairs for a great lesson in teamwork.
