Gingerbread Collage Art Activity

If you’re looking for a quick, easy, and adorable winter activity, this gingerbread collage art activity is for you! You can use any supplies to make these gingerbread men come to life.

Table of Contents:

1. Gingerbread collage art is always a winner
2. Materials
3. Directions
4. Is this gingerbread collage art activity a process-art project?
5. What to do with finished gingerbread collage art
6. Frequently Asked Questions

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Gingerbread collage art is always a winner

This is the perfect activity to try when you’re in the mood for gingerbread fun but don’t necessarily want to make actual cookies.

Unlike actual gingerbread cookies, you probably have everything on hand right now that you need for this project, plus there are no dishes to clean up afterward!

We have made gingerbread collage art for several years, and it’s one we look forward to every year.

Related: A giant 10-foot Gingerbread coloring banner is the best addition to your gingerbread fun

Materials

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• Brown paper – If I didn’t have brown paper on hand, I wouldn’t hesitate to use any other color (or white copy paper) as kids won’t mind one bit
• Accessories – Use anything you have (ex: beads, jewels, googly eyes, yarn, pom poms, beans, stickers, stamps, glitter glue, etc.)
• Glue
• Scissors
• Markers, crayons, or oil pastels
• Gingerbread stencil

Directions

I love this activity so much because it’s something I can prep and have ready but ultimately don’t need to be involved in while the kids create.

I LOVE activities where kids have total control of what they make (and their final pieces always turn out adorably).

• Prep the gingerbread cutouts by (1) having them already cut out and ready to go or (2) setting out the stencil and inviting kids to trace + cut their own gingerbread shapes.

• Set out decorating accessories so kids can see all the products available.

• Create a whole collection of gingerbread people.

Is this gingerbread collage art activity a process-art project?

If children’s art is a spectrum with process-art on one side and product-art on the other, this is somewhere between the middle and the process-art side (and it can get closer to process-art by how hands-off the adults are).

Picture this:

Kids walk up to a table with gingerbread stencils, brown paper, and decorating accessories. Kids cut out their gingerbread people, ultimately ending in shapes that are all a little different.

Then, kids freely decorate the gingerbread people and no two gingerbread men are the same.

One is covered in glitter glue, one has 32 googly eyes, one has yarn for hair, and one is covered in sequins.

That, my sweet friends, is process-art. No two pieces are the same, and kids have complete freedom and creativity.

If, however, all of the gingerbread shapes are pre-cut, the teacher has a sample and directs kids to make theirs look like hers (ex: “Put the eyes here, the mouth here, the buttons here…”), and all of the final pieces look the same…then it’s product-art.

What to do with finished gingerbread collage art

Because each piece is going to be just about the cutest thing you’ve ever seen, these are precious hung up for all to see.

And because they’ll all be different, it will be easy for kids to spot the specific pieces they made.

We have seen people hang these around bulletin boards, on classroom doors, on bedroom doors, down hallways, and even strung on garlands and hanging on mantels.

Looking for more winter fun? Try some of these faves:

• Cranberry Christmas Sensory Bin
• Window Cling Printmaking
• Easy Snowflake Art with Blue Tape
• Tape Resist Christmas Trees

Frequently Asked Questions