Gingerbread Meets Gadgets: Seasonal Tech Adventures

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By Kerri Lambert, Academic Specialist, Instructional Technology

‘Tis the season for squirrely students! So what’s a tired teacher, just trying to get to winter break, to do? Pull out all the engagement tricks they have up their sleeves, that’s what! And what better way to get students tuned in then by using technology? 

Over the years, we’ve written several blog posts about seasonal activities that teachers can do with students as the holidays get closer (Find them here, here, and here), and so in this year’s round-up we thought we’d highlight one of the tastiest treats of the season- gingerbread!

Why gingerbread? Well, gingerbread is widely associated with winter traditions and holidays across many cultures, with it’s origins dating back to the ancient Egyptians. This promotes a sense of unity and shared celebration, regardless of students’ backgrounds. Gingerbread also lends itself to creativity, perfect for engaging students in teamwork. There’s also plenty of opportunity for bringing in concepts from across content areas: dimensions in math, writing and story exploration in ELA, researching origins of gingerbread in history, just to name a few!

So, run, run as fast as you can to your device carts, and get ready to explore these digital content connections with gingerbread.

Gingerbread Decorating

When people think of gingerbread, they more than likely immediately think of decorating gingerbread houses or gingerbread cookies. If you love that idea, but don’t want the mess, than technology to the rescue. Wixie has several activities ready to go in their December month-to-month folder where students can digitally decorate a cookie or house. You can give them free rein with template like this one, or provide parameters with this one. Other options include designing a cookie that shows how they unique they are or comparing gingerbread men to snowmen. Want to take it up a notch? Challenge students to build a gingerbread house in Minecraft! Students can build freely in creative mode, or you can provide parameters- maybe a specific theme, size, or limits on building materials. Once students have finished designing their gingerbread, they can use the talkies in Wixie or the chalkboards in Minecraft to describe their creations. 

The Gingerbread Boy

It’s the classic story that everyone knows and loves. After reading the story, cast one of the Sphero robots (indi in elementary, Bolt in middle, or RVR in high school) in the role of the Gingerbread Boy. Present students with one or all of the following challenges: 

  • Code the robot to sequence the events of the story
  • Build a bridge that the robot has to cross in order to escape
  • Create an obstacle course or maze for the robot to go through that reflects the story

How simple or complex you make the coding challenges is up to you and what works best for your students!


Other literature based activities include creating a Wanted Poster for the Gingerbread boy in Adobe Express or Wixie. You can also have students interview the Gingerbread boy using this Wixie template that incorporates everyone’s favorite feature- talkies! Adobe Express and Wixie also work well to create animations retelling part of the story, or to create memes featuring gingerbread people. 

Take a page from the Chick-fil-a Cows Playbook

I can see you thinking, where is this going? Well, you know how the famous Chick-Fil-A cows always are trying to get you to eat more chicken? Well, have the Gingerbread people of the world launch their own PR campaign to have folks eat more candy (or snickerdoodles)! Students can plan a media blitz- interviews, commercials, posters, memes, etc all using digital tools such as WeVideo, Adobe Express, and Wixie. Not only is this activity fun, but it brings in so many different content connections- research, POV, persuasive language, etc. Teach math? Have students survey the school before they launch their campaign and then again afterwards to measure the success of their efforts. Use spreadsheets and graphs to display the data. 

Hopefully this post provides you with some inspiration to incorporate some gingerbread themed activities into your instruction during the weeks leading up to and even after Winter Break. These activities not only align with the festive spirit of the season but also provide a fun and inclusive way to integrate technology into your curriculum. So, fire up those devices and let the gingerbread-inspired adventures begin!



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