Gingerbread House unit

Each year the 5th grade at Eastside design gingerbread houses. We use this unit to work on perimeter and area. Each student will design the structure for the base of their house. We will then go to our cooking lab and make 8 batches of gingerbread cookie dough. Students will cut our their special cookie shapes that they have designed and bake them. We then whip up 12 batches of royal icing for the glue. Students glue their houses together and decorate. Many enter their houses in our local Gingerbread House Contest at a local bank. This is the 22nd  year that I have done this project with my class.

I have found the following sites that are wonderful for our gingerbread house unit.
History of gingerbread houses
Gingerbread History
More Gingerbread History from Ginny's site
Time Line of Food - How old is your candy? click on Timeline in the heading for more food ages - wow somethings are really old!
House examples at the following sites: 1  2  3
Decorating ingredients and ideas - great site for candy ideas