Paper Bag Gingerbread Language Craft

For many, the holiday season is synonymous with cookie baking, sweet treats, and all things food! I often find a way to incorporate a fun SpeechSnack into my sessions during this time of year (after checking for allergy restrictions first!)—like this one from last year for Reindeer Sandwiches, one of my healthy favorites for Grinch-kabobs, or my Gingerbread Man direction following activity, and this one for Chocolate Covered Mice! However, this year was a very different type of year {{no explanation required!}} so a food-themed activity was not in the cards for me and my students. But we didn’t let that stop us from coming up with a plan B! This year, we made gingerbread houses—not from food, but from paper bags, paper plates, and a lot of creativity!

While it may not be quite as tasty, my students still enjoyed this hands-on activity that focused on so many great language targets—DIRECTION FOLLOWING, LISTENING STRATEGIES, DESCRIPTIVE LANGUAGE, VOCABULARY BUILDING, AND CATEGORIZATION. And I challenged many of them with a new word—EMBELLISHMENTS. We discussed examples and wrote sentences to help them improve their understanding of the word. We may not have got our “sugar fix” this year, but we fed our appetites for better communication!

Since this activity contains multiple-step directions and challenges their working memory, , I addressed strategies to help them successfully remember and execute the information. I always review listening strategies prior to any task that involves multi-step direction following or auditory comprehension exercises. (i.e.: whole body listening, using your “mind’s eye/visualization,” reauditorization, requesting clarification.)

Here’s how you can make your own paper bag gingerbread house. I made up my own set of directions, but feel free to modify, add, delete as you see fit for your caseload.

Gingerbread House Direction Following

Have the following materials ready for your students:  two brown lunch bags, one white paper plate, three sheets of newspaper, an assortment of markers or crayons including black, red, green, yellow, scissors, a stapler. 

• 1. Open the paper lunch bag and add three crumpled pieces of newspaper inside.  When you are finished name three other things you can read besides a newspaper.  (i.e.: a book, magazine, a recipe)
• 2. Fold down the paper bag two times and staple the bag shut at the top. Your bag will now resemble a house.  Name three other places people live besides a house.  (i.e.: a condo, apartment, trailer home, mansion, hut)
• 3. To add a roof to your house, cut off everything except the bottom portion of a second bag.  Then fold that part in half. 
• 4. Attached the roof to the house by laying it across the top of the house and stapling it in place.  What do you think a roof is made of?  (i.e.: wood, shingles)
• 5. Using a black marker or crayon, on the front of the house add two windows next to each other at the top and a door in the center at the bottom. 

• 7. On the back of the house add three small windows at the top and one large window below it in the center. Name three other places that you find windows besides houses. (i.e.: car, store, school)

• 8. If you celebrate Christmas, add a green wreath above the door, if you do not, add any color shutters to all the windows.  Name some other holidays people celebrate at this time of year besides Christmas. (i.e.: Hanukkah, Kwanza)
• 9. If your name starts with a consonant, color the back windows yellow. If your name starts with a vowel, color the front windows yellow.
• 10. If you like the taste of gingerbread, add a green tree to each side of the house.  If you do not like gingerbread, add a green tree to only one side of the house.

** Discuss the meaning of the word embellish and ask your students to use it in a sentence. They can choose from a variety of materials to embellish their gingerbread house.    Suggestions: White and multi color tissue paper, small candies, plastic gems, sequins, pipe cleaners, pom poms.

Finally, ask your students to describe their finished gingerbread house.