Gingerbread Name Activity for Holiday Learning Fun

This gingerbread name activity uses our homemade gingerbread scented play dough. You’re going to love it!

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We’re joining in with the Virtual Book Club for Kids again this week. The book this week is The Gingerbread Man by Jim Aylesworth (affiliate). The theme, as you might guess, is gingerbread.

There are many, many versions of The Gingerbread Man stories. This is a classic one, where the gingerbread man runs away but in the end, gets eaten by the tricky fox.

Gingerbread Name Activity

We made gingerbread play dough several years ago for Liam. I’ve lost that recipe, but still remember its heavenly gingerbread scent and soft, silky feel. I decided to try to re-create it. Then, we got out our gingerbread man cookie cutter and our letter stamps to turn it into a learning activity.

Gingerbread Play Dough Ingredients

I based my recipe on this no-cook one, plus a peek at the spices in my gingerbread recipe.

• 1 Cup flour
• 1/4 Cup Salt
• 1 Tablespoon Cream of Tartar
• 1 Tablespoon Oil
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1 Cup boiling water
• Food coloring (red, yellow, green)

Gingerbread Play Dough Instructions

I used my stand mixer with the dough hook (affiliate). It made really quick, easy work of everything. You could also mix and knead by hand.

1. Mix together everything except the water and food coloring.
2. Drop 2 drops of red food coloring, 1 drop of yellow, and 1 drop of green into the hot water.
3. Pour the water mixture into the flour mixture. Stir well, then knead until it is smooth and not sticky. Let cool a little so it doesn’t burn your child’s hands.

Name Activity

We rolled the dough out flat, and then stamped it with clean letter stamps (affiliate). You can start by modeling how you stamp out your own name. Then, depending on your child’s level of independence you could approach the activity in several ways:

• Hand the child each letter stamp in order, and guide him to stamp left to right.
• Write out her name, and lay out the stamps needed to imitate it by stamping in the play dough.
• Write out his name to copy, but have him choose the stamps from all 26 letters.

Add additional variation by using a gingerbread man cookie cutter. Cut out enough gingerbread men for each letter of the child’s name. Then stamp letters onto each man.

You might like to follow up with some fun, personalized name tracing worksheets or your favorite Gingerbread Man story.

I hope you enjoy the warm dough and delicious aroma while your child plays with this gingerbread name activity. Happy holidays!

You may like to check out these other gingerbread activities in my store:

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