What a wonderful time we’ve had in preschool making our very own gingerbread men!

The children were excited to get involved in every step of the baking process, from measuring the ingredients to mixing everything together and creating our delicious gingerbread dough.

We began by looking at our recipe and talking about the different ingredients we would need. The children had the opportunity to weigh the ingredients themselves, helping them develop their early mathematical skills as they explored numbers, quantities and measuring. We talked about how much of each ingredient we needed and what might happen if we added too much or too little.

Next, it was time to get mixing! The children took turns adding the ingredients to the bowl and mixing them together, watching with curiosity as the separate ingredients combined to form our gingerbread dough. They showed great enthusiasm, concentration and independence as they took responsibility for their own baking tasks.

Once our dough was ready, we rolled it out and used gingerbread man cutters to create our biscuit shapes. The children loved pressing the cutters into the dough and seeing their gingerbread men appear. We then placed them in the oven and waited patiently for them to bake, enjoying the lovely, warming smell of gingerbread filling the room.

This activity was about so much more than making biscuits. It gave the children opportunities to develop their fine motor skills, practise hand-eye coordination, follow instructions and build confidence in their own abilities. We also encouraged language development as we talked about the ingredients, described what we were doing and discussed how the dough changed throughout the process.

Most importantly, the children had so much fun learning through hands-on experiences and working together as a team. They were so proud to see what they had created!