As we get into the holiday spirit, School-age 3 worked hard on creating mock gingerbread creations. Educator Vanessa brought in some cardboard and hot glue guns and set them out on the table as a provocation. The materials intrigued the children, and slowly a crowd gathered around. Mackenzie was the first to ask, "what are we doing with those?" "Making gingerbread houses!" Vanessa said. An excited murmur went through the group as everyone began to debate what to make.
There were some safety rules to go over first. "Once you have your cardboard designs ready, you can come use the hot glue gun. But, before you use it we need to make sure we're being safe." Vanessa sat down with each individual who wanted to use the gun and set out the safety rules. "Only hold the handle. Do not touch the nozzle. What's the key word in a 'hot glue gun?' That's right, 'hot'. So, we need to watch what we do because we don't want to burn ourselves." Everyone agreed to be safe, eager to use this new tool that would fasten materials together.
While Kylah started simply by folding cardboard into the shape of a house, other friends cut individual pieces out and glued them together; Matthew made sure he had 5 equal pieces: 4 sides and a roof. Eve chose not to make a house, but an angel in a manger instead. Joe started gluing random pieces of cardboard together, though they quickly formed the shape of a sled. While Ella was adamant about making a house for her 'elf on the shelf' back home. Some friends had to work together in pairs with a buddy in order to spread the materials out among the group; Mackenzie and Elowyn worked together to cut and place cardboard, starting the first steps in making a large house together.
The exciting part was, of course, using the glue gun. Vanessa sat and observed each child as they had their turn, reminding them not to touch the glue, and helped when needed. Matthew was a little apprehensive at first, but after succeeding in drawing one long line of glue by himself he felt confident that he could "do it myself". Sometimes the glue would run low in the gun, and Vanessa would have to help by holding the new stick in until it was far enough to not fall out. This was a new concept as most friends didn't know how a hot glue gun worked, and were fascinated by the concept of the glue melting through the nozzle.
Since hot glue requires time to dry thoroughly, the creation step was just the first in finishing these designs. Some friends wanted to bring their creations home right away and chose to decorate them by colouring them with various utensils, while others chose to wait. We let the houses set and dry over night to ensure the glue was 100 percent dry, and the next day we added white glue mixed with white paint, as well as artistic loose parts like pom poms and foam shapes for decorations. These materials were to resemble icing and candy that go into decorating a real gingerbread house. The glue/paint mixture was even in a squeeze bottle, so that when the decorator added it to their house It could run down like Icing, giving a realistic effect to the cardboard creations.
Creating these gingerbread houses was a great way to explore risky play. The hot glue gun allowed us to explore a new tool, as well as use our sense of risk assessment and judge our sense of self as we determined how confident and comfortable we were using it. The hot glue gun was also a new tool for many and therefore the children were introduced to something they had never explored before. Being able to design and create a mock gingerbread house allowed us to engage in creative play and foster our imaginations as we brought our vision to life. The fact that we used materials that resembled the real thing helped connect us to the real world as well. This is a great way to explore all of the foundations involved in STEAM play, as we explored science (melting glue), technology (the gun), engineering (designing the house), art (creating and decorating), and math (measuring)!
