Gingerbread man play date

Our letter G play date was based on the Gingerbread man story.

Our guest were mum Lesley-Anne with Poppy, mum Maeve with Amelie and Patrick, mum Geraldine with Patrick, mum Magdelena with Tobi, and mum Lisa with Oscar.

I created a story world on my kitchen table by covering it with paper and painted green for grass, yellow for a road and blue for a river. To tie in with our version of the book I placed on top our toy farm, some fence with a horse and a cow, a farmer and a toy school with children.

  
The kids were sat in front of the table and I sat behind and told the story with the book, a gingerbread man toy and the ‘fox’ puppet I bought last week. The children wanted to hold the props as we went along which was a great way to help them remember the story.

  
       

All the kids were very engaged but I have to say due to feeling very unwell I wasn’t quite as upbeat or rehearsed as I would have like to have been.

Next we cleared the table and set up the first activity. Ginger play dough. I’d made several batches so we had loads and also to send some home with each child. 

GINGER PLAYDOUGH

1 cup plain flour

Third cup salt

2 tsp cream of tartar

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

1 cup boiling water

I simply mixed all the dry ingredients in a bowl then stirred in the oil and then the boiling water. Kept stiring until it gathered together and then tipped it onto the counter to cool. I then started the next batch (I have found in the past that trying to double or triple the quantities of everything to make a big batch just didn’t work). Once I had four done I started kneeding each batch until it was smooth and tested it with a cookie cutter.

I also provided the kids with many shapes and sizes of gingerbread men and women cookie cutters, a letter g stamp,  PLAYDOUGH mats and a tray containing glitter, ground ginger, Googly eyes, Poms Poms and jewels.   

    The kids focussed on this activity for quite some time. Kealan had the least interest but enjoyed mixing the glitter and ginger and did manage some creations with some assistance. 

  

As it was snack time the kids got to decorate some real gingerbread men next.   

   

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Whilst the mums had tea and scones my mum entertained the sugar fuelled crazed maniacs … sorry I mean children … with the puppets.   

 

Next we had a chat about why the gingerbread man had been afraid of the river. And as a little experiment I gave each child a bowl of water and a small gingerbread biscuit. I have to admit they all looked a bit worried when the heads fell off and they turned to mush but overall the activity was a hit and they all wanted another go (all apart Kealan, who spent the activity trying to put a baby shoe on his foot, only my son would do this!)

  
   
  Lastly I reminded them how the fox had bitten the gingerbread man and  he was a quarter gone, again and he was half gone, again he was three quarters gone and then he was all gone. Then they were given biscuits to see if the could break their gingerbread men in half.   

 

The going home gift consisted of a Gingerbread man shape puzzle, gingerbread men cookie cutters with ginger PLAYDOUGH and two sizes and flavours of gingerbread men.   

    So that was our play date fun. Since then Amelie has broken one of her biscuits in half and said “look mummy, a half” and Oscar had completed his shape puzzle.