Verona students show their skills in making gingerbread houses

Third-grade students at Verner Elementary School in Verona recently took part in one of their most anticipated events of the holiday season when they put together a gingerbread house display.

The display has been running for eight straight years at Verner, with the third-graders designing and creating their own houses and then displaying them in the hallway for other students to view. The intention is to simulate a snowy Christmas stroll.

Designed as part of the math curriculum by teacher Jill Waffensmith, the students use Graham crackers to build their houses, but first they design them using a paper model. They then measure the length and height of their models and transpose those same measurements into the actual cracker gingerbread house.

Each Graham cracker is 5 by 2.5 inches, or 13 by 6.5 centimeters, across, and the students are allowed to make their houses as big or as small as they would like.

After building their houses, the students then decorate them however they want using gummy bears, gumdrops, chocolate and various other smaller candies. Most of the decorating candy comes from parent donations, often leftovers from Halloween.

The activity helps the students learn about spatial relations in addition to challenges with the problem-solving process, as many times the houses do not initially look like the paper models without some additional work.

“The students have a vision, then they get themselves the resources,” Waffensmith said. “But sometimes they end up saying to themselves, ‘This might not end up looking like I thought.’”

Third-grader Emmett Laughlin commented on the time commitment in putting together such a project.

“It was fun, but I didn’t think that I would finish in time,” he said.

Student Jayden Lucas was able to use the activity to show off his improvisational skills, as mitigated a near-disaster to his project with some ingenuity and creativity:

“Well, my house fell down. So I got a dinosaur and added it to my display to make it look like the dinosaur had knocked down the house and was eating it.”

Waffensmith explained how the project helps the students also think about what they want for the future.

“We talk to the students about career goals and how they relate to the houses,” she said. “We talk to them about being an interior designer or an architect or a contractor or home builder. The kids have this fun experience and then they remember it forever.”

Student Mila Jablonski agreed.

“I’ve watched the other students do this and I’ve waited all these years to be able to do it myself. I’m definitely going to remember it.”