The Mediocre Mom's Guide to Greatness

Ginger Bread Man

I know I know, what a bizarre theme for a party!  Well my mom was a kindergarten teacher so me and my brothers ALL had a gingerbread man birthday party and so did my son!

Invitation:

I picked up some die cuts of a gingerbread man from the craft store and this is what I wrote on back:

So I’ve never made gingerbread before and I didn’t really dare.  Plus I think it is an acquired taste, especially for little ones.  So I made sugar cookies with whole wheat floor (that was really all I had in my cupboard) so they looked brown.  We had frosting out as well as fun little toppings to create a face and of course the gum drop buttons.  One thing I didn’t do that I would suggest is to have a little bag they can put the cookie in to take it home.  It can be as simple as a ziplock bag or you could even use a craft bag and tie it with some pretty ribbon.

Option #2:

This idea would be a little bit complicated.  Let me first tell you about Max’s favorite day of school so far.  At the beginning of the day they made a gingerbread man cookie and then took it to the cafeteria to get baked.  (This was a social studies activity so they could get to know the other teachers and have a tour of the school).  Then they did other kindergarten things when the cafeteria worker came and told them that she opened the oven and the gingerbread man escaped!!!  The kindergarteners were shocked!  At this point they went on a search for the run away gingerbread man meeting all the office workers and seeing where all the other grades class rooms were.  Some people HAD seen the gingerbread man and one women in the office even tried to catch it!  At the end of the day no one had found him.  So Max’s teacher set up a trap with a box and a stick and put M&M’s inside it because EVERYONE knows that M&M’s are a gingerbread mans favorite treat!  The next day during Cub TV (the morning announcements) the Gingerbread man ran across the screen while the children doing the announcements tried to catch him.  All the Kindergartners screamed with excitement!  Later on the Gingerbread man was caught in the trap set by his teacher.  While he was sound asleep the teacher took him out of the box and cut him into pieces so he couldn’t run away and the children all enjoyed a taste of the naughtily little gingerbread man.

So…here’s how to make it work for a birthday party: Have the gingerbread man all ready to go into the oven when the guests arrive.  Let them see you put it in the oven.  Go on with other party activities.  While the children aren’t watching take it into another room (or even outside) to hide.  Go open the oven and scream “Oh no!”  This will get their attention and tell them the gingerbread man ran away.  Then go on a Treasure hunt to find it.  You could also set up a trap like Mrs. Armstrong did or just leave clues throughout the house like a train of gumdrops or even just crumbs…another idea is to leave stuffed animals out the resemble the characters in the book, the little old lady, a horse, a cow…etc.   Once you find him cut him up and eat him.

Activity #2: Book

At this point we read the children the book and had an extra copy for each of them to take home as their party favor.

Activity #3:  Ginger bread man game

Supplies: A large cardboard box (big enough for a child to fit in).

How to play:  One child is the gingerbread man and one is the little old lady, or little old man.  Have the “gingerbread man” hide in the box (aka, the oven) and jump out.  Then the “little old man” will chase them and try to catch them, kind of like tag.  When we played this at my sons party the kids loved it.  It did get a little bit crazy once ALL of them started trying to catch the gingerbread man.

Cake:

I made a Gingerbread man cake.  For more details see How to Make Your Own Cake Pan in our tips section.

Tags: birthday, cake, games, gingerbread man party