Winter doesn’t officially start until December 21st, but it’s snowing at Ignite and our Gingerbread houses are covered in snow!
Check out the freshly plowed driveway!
Our architects began their gingerbread house three weeks ago by brainstorming a list of “I Wonder?” questions we need to answer before getting started. What size will it be? What materials will I use? Will it have a chimney big enough for Santa? How many windows and doors? How will I connect the walls and the roof? What tools will I need? The answers to these important questions helped the kids plan, label materials, and draw a model of their house in their engineer journals! Last week, we built the structures and made sure they would provide a sturdy home for the Gingerbread family!
This week the first snow of the season covered our houses. We used an awesome puffy paint recipe that dries to foamy 3-D snow to cover the roofs and lawns with a layer of fresh snow.
Puffy snow is easy for you and your kids to make on a cold Winter Day.
In a large bowl, gently mix ¼ cup school glue with an overflowing cup of foamy shaving cream—I bought ours from the Dollar Tree. When the glue and shaving cream are combined, they will look a bit like cool whip. Add up to a ¼ cup flour to the mixture a tablespoon at a time. Don't add too much, you don’t want it to get dry. Now you’ve got fluffy snow paint! Adding glitter or shiny confetti adds a sparkle to your snow. Paint snow on a Wintry Christmas picture or use it on gingerbread houses of your own! Or add food coloring and put it in a squeeze bottle to make colored details on your artwork.
We’ll wrap up by building a paper circuit with LED lights to illuminate or Gingerbread houses! Can’t wait to see them at night!