Fun with gingerbread!

Back before Christmas, we had a little fun with a brief gingerbread unit. Two of our activities were making a gingerbread counting book (while pretending to eat the gingerbread man throughout the book) and conducting a science experiment with real gingerbread cookies!

Working on gingerbread books. Cutting out so many gingerbread men was great for our fine motor skills!

Next, we decided to see what would happen when we mixed a gingerbread cookie with a liquid. Each child got one cookie, a cup, and a sheet on which to record his or her results. First, we drew pictures of what the cookie looked like before going into the cup. Then we placed the cookies into the cups and poured water over them.

At first, there wasn't much of a visible change. As the teacher, I could tell that the cookies were absorbing water, but to the kids they looked more or less the same. We recorded these observations on the board.

What's a teacher to do? Get out some craft sticks and let them start poking and stirring!

After recording our "with water added" results, there was one final step ... EATING! (No, not our soggy cookies, but fresh ones.) 

Learning is fun ... and delicious!