By Benjamin Rickert, Communications Department
Gingerbread Engineering
Black Mountain Primary students are exploring the world of gingerbread architecture and the results are as impressive as they are delicious! The students worked hard to compete in the National Gingerbread House Competition at the local Grove Park Inn resort— a community tradition entering its 25th year. According to the official rules, the structures must be“ composed completely of edible materials,” with the main structure“ constructed of at least 75 percent gingerbread.” The project required students to plan their projects carefully.
In Ms. Ashley Styles first-grade classroom, 16 students endeavored to create not only a gingerbread house, but a miniature gingerbread village! They wanted to model the tasty buildings after real structures in their home town of Black Mountain, so students visited downtown armed with iPads, and took detailed photos of their favorite buildings. Then, the students got to work finding innovative solutions to recreate the buildings, such as using fruit roll-ups for umbrellas, chia seeds for the rooftops, and jelly beans with frosting in place of stone masonry. Along their gingerbread engineering journey, they studied historical stories of gingerbread in England, and read gingerbread-themed literature like Hansel and Gretel. They also inspected German architecture and maps for inspiration.
Tucker is a student who worked on the pizza shop and explained that“ it was a lot of fun building the rock wall and the patio” out of candy. Ella was especially proud of the umbrellas and tables she worked on.
At the end of their construction project, students were very proud to have created a village they called Hometown Haven with buildings modeled after stores from downtown, including Bramblewood Cottage, The Sweets Shop, Kilwins Chocolates, and My Father’ s Pizza!( In the classroom next door with Mrs. Leatherwood and Mrs. Danner, students created a treasure-chest themed gingerbread house, complete with under-the-sea creatures!)
Ms. Styles explained that students improved their mapping skills using google earth and then put those skills to work with 3D shapes. Before the students attempted to create each building, they used various blocks to construct a model, and then had to solve design problems to construct their village with edible materials.
“ Seeing the integration between social studies, science, and math— and then the real-life application through baking— will help the students remember these standards,” explained Ms. Styles, who aims to connect her lessons with unique experiences.
Jennifer Marsh is a parent who volunteers in Ms. Styles’ classroom. She said her whole family looks forward to making memories and presenting their project at the exclusive event for competitors.
“ I told my son,‘ we’ re putting on our church clothes, and we’ re going to be the first to see all of the gingerbread houses,’” Marsh said.“ It’ s going to be a very fun and special night!”
Will the gingerbread house ultimately be eaten?!
“ If you saw all the hands that touched this,” said Marsh with a smirk,“ you really wouldn’ t want to eat it.”
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