Encourage your child to decorate the house this holiday season with a gingerbread man chain that is almost cute enough to eat! He will enjoy drawing, cutting, and embellishing, with a little of your assistance. This activity is small on cost, but large on imagination! He will strengthen those tiny hand muscles as he works on hand-eye coordination.
What You Need:
- Brown paper grocery bag (or brown butcher paper)
- Safety scissors
- 12 red and 6 green buttons
- Liquid white-out
- Decorative ribbon
- Black and pink markers
- Craft glue
What You Do:
- Help your child draw a gingerbread man, and cut it out for him to use as a template.
- Have your child cut off the bottom side of a grocery bag and cut all the way up one side.
- Ask your child to open the bag up and make as many accordion folds as possible, making sure that the folds are about a 1/4-inch less than the width of the template.
- Have your child trace the template on the top fold of the paper bag.
- Ask him to cut along the lines, being careful that the gingerbread man’s hands remain connected.
- Now he has a chain of six gingerbread men to decorate! Using white-out, invite your child to make small zig-zag patterns for the sleeves and trousers. He can use the white-out to fashion some hair as well.
- Invite your child to glue on green and red buttons to the gingerbread man's chest.
- Help your child measure ribbon to fit the gingerbread man’s waist and glue it on.
- Encourage you child to draw eyes and a mouth using black marker. A red marker can be used for the cheeks.
Tape the gingerbread man chain underneath the fireplace mantle and voilà! Your child has enhanced his fine motor skills while creating an adorable and unique holiday decoration! Help your child make several of them to hang like garlands from doorways and windows.
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