Who knew you could satisfy national curriculum standards while savoring the aroma, taste, and creative possibilities of gingerbread?! Here are some websites that show you how!
Gather the family around the computer for a treat! You can watch a film of beloved children’s author and illustrator Jan Brett reading her story, “The Gingerbread Baby,” aloud at this website. Not only that, she offers lots of arts and crafts activity pages all themed around “The Gingerbread Baby.” Simply click on “Home Page” after viewing the video and look for links to “Activities Pages” and “Coloring Pages” on the menu.
Read an interactive, online version of the classic, traditional tale of The Gingerbread Man.
You can read an annotated version of the classic tale, The Gingerbread Man, at this website, see various illustrations and books about The Gingerbread Man, and even discover similar stories from other cultures!
This website offers the history of gingerbread from the Middle Ages to modern times – with a nod to the Brothers Grimm and “Hansel & Gretel.”" It also explains the history of ginger root, the herb used to make ginger for use in gingerbread. The text at this site provides basic historical information and contains links for further study. Unfortunately, the links did not work when I visited, but the text provides plenty of information without it. You will also find some recipes using ginger at this site.
You only need basic math skills to build a Gingerbread House! Learn a little about geometry (and architecture!) as you determine what size to cut the squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, archways and other parts needed for the structure.
At this Gingerbread Lane website you can look through a photo archive of incredible gingerbread houses that have won prizes in various gingerbread house contests. You can even see an Eiffel Tower made out or Gingerbread! The site has recipes for gingerbread and the all-important mortar-icing! There are also construction tips, and plans for making simple gingerbread houses too. You’ll discover the best decorative candy to use – and you will find tips for how to preserve your gingerbread masterpiece. Finally there are links to 26 other sites all about gingerbread!
Now, as a bonus, I’ve included a website where you can follow very easy plans to make mini faux gingerbread houses out of graham crackers. This is an especially good choice if you are pressed for time – or if you have young children who would get frustrated with building more complex or real gingerbread structures. Here’s the website for more simple “gingerbread” houses.
Note: I gave a Gingerbread House Building Party for our homeschool support group one year. Guests brought single-serving milk cartons that we used for bases for the houses. Then we just used royal icing to “glue” the graham crackers to the milk cartons. Construction is simple using this method. Once you cover the milk carton in graham crackers – you can fill in spaces with icing. Then decorate the whole thing as usual with candy. We supplied icing and graham crackers for building. Guests brought their own milk cartons and candy to decorate (we shared the candy). It was great fun and the results were spectacular. If you do this be sure that every adult has their own materials – as parents like this project as much as their kids do! This also prevents the kids from saying to mom and dad in total exasperation, “I’d rather do it myself!” 
This website offers information on the ginger plant from which we get powdered ginger for gingerbread. See pictures of the ginger plant, ginger flower, and ginger root. You will also find the name of the ginger plant in many different languages as well as information about its various uses, along with links to other sites about ginger.
Note: Don’t forget that baking is a science — so be sure to make a batch of gingerbread or gingerbread men using the recipes provided at many of today’s links.
Additional Gingerbread Studies
Almost. At this site you’ll find all kinds of gingerbread-themed trivia, history, language arts — including a link to Grimm’s Hansel & Gretel that you can read online, the scientific classification of ginger, and much more! Use the information here to create your own unit study!
