Not a math activity exactly but something fun to do near the holidays. This was created during covid times when we needed more virtual activities. The students always enjoy building and decorating gingerbread houses. Brainstorming ideas with my youngest son led to the creation of this activity. We have created a few gingerbread “shapes” ( house, train, sleigh, people, snowmen) and added them to a google slides presentation along with some candy objects. The students can choose which one to decorate or decorate them all. This is the simple version for the young ones however they can be fun for older students as well. They can make cards for friends and family. You can also print them and decorate with beads, glitter, pom poms, small candy and more.
Here are some ideas of how to use the students’ creations or add some more learning to this activity.
- The students can save their picture as a png with their name on it, and the teacher can decorate them in the virtual classroom or make a board with all of them.
- The students can use their creations to make virtual cards for friends and relatives by adding text. They can save them as png and send them by email.
- The students can write a story about their creation or describe it. They can write story/word problems.
- They can list the candy on their creation by type, and write expressions, or problems. For example “How many blue and red jelly beans are on the roof”?
- They can make a graph to show how many of each type of candy they used for each shape. (house, train)
- The teacher can create a list of expressions for candy to be used. Example: Use 3+5 red jelly beans, use 2×5 gummy bears, and so on.
Here is the google slides presentation to be used in edit mode.
Decorate a gingerbread house, train, snowman, and more.
We have also created a “build it” version where the students use blocks to build their house (or train, person) and then decorate it. This version is for students that are more familiar with google slides and can resize, rotate, and flip shapes.
Here is the google slides presentation of the build version to be used in edit mode.
Math ideas
- You can talk about shapes
- Give Ratios for the candy used to decorate.
- Give expressons for each candy quantity.
- Make graphs for the candy on a house.
- Write word problems.
Check out our holiday activity cards.
Winter Holidays Digital Activity cards grades 1/2
Winter Holidays Digital Activity cards – grades 3/4
Winter Holidays – Digital Division Activity cards
Games!
Holiday Scavenger Hunt Games – Addition/Subtraction/Place Value 1-100