Decorating Gingerbread Houses

This is how each table was set-up with supplies.

Trader Joe's Gingerbread House Kit.

We always love to try new things so this year we decided to have the students work in teams and decorate Gingerbread Houses.  We are fortunate to have wonderful parent involvement and were able to get all the supplies donated.  The Gingerbread House Kits came from Trader Joe's and cost $7.99 each.  We like these kits because they are easy to put together.  To save time, we had the parents donate containers of white frosting and food coloring.  This was much easier than making your own frosting that comes in the kit.  We also had the students bring in small Ziploc bags of assorted candy labeled with their name.

Before we could get started, we had parent volunteers prep each table with the kit pieces, two small cups of different color frosting, bowls of M&M's, mini marshmallows, frosted shredded wheat cereal and peppermint candy.   Teams were able to swap frosting colors during the decorating process.   This made each Gingerbread House unique.  We had one adult with each group of 5 students to help as a guide.  When the houses were done, each team had to come up with a name.  As one of our students said, "today was the best day ever!"

Our finished product.

We will use these houses as table decorations for our upcoming Holiday Party and then we will have a raffle and send them home with some lucky families.