Celebrate winter holidays, or a unit about the gingerbread man, while reinforcing shape identification and counting! This low-prep math craftivity uses art supplies found in most classrooms: construction paper, crayons or markers, scissors, and glue sticks. Simply print out the shape page, and you're good to go!

I've included a page with images to assist students who may not have background knowledge about gingerbread houses. I ask students to brainstorm shapes they see in the images, then elicit ideas for how to incorporate those shapes into their own 2D shape gingerbread house.

To begin the craft, students first color all of the shapes and cut them out (I suggest the large square and large triangle be colored tan or brown). Then they arrange their cut-out shapes to resemble a gingerbread house on a piece of construction paper. To make this activity more open-ended, I allow students to choose which shapes to use for their gingerbread house. Next, students glue the shapes onto the construction paper. You might want to remind students that they can add things like lollipop trees and a chocolate bar chimney.

The craftivity can stand alone as a cute project, or you can add another step to stretch students' math muscles. I've included an additional page that gives students more practice with shape identification and counting. They will count and record the number of each shape they used to create their gingerbread house.