Felt Gingerbread Man: Busy Bag Activity

Felt Gingerbread Girl/Boy
This makes a great activity to keep in busy boxes/bags.  It's simple to grab and play with.  My children like to use a cookie sheet to put their gingerbread person together on then pretend to cook it. 

 
Supplies:
This project is great for using your imagination to come up with different accessories for your gingerbread person.  I have a list of what I used, but feel free to stray from the directions and use what you have on hand!
Felt in Brown, Black, and Bright colors of your choosing. 
(I bought a yard of brown because I made multiple gingerbread people and I bought a pkg of mulit-colored felt sheets to use for accessories)
White Rick Rack
Yarn- used to make hair and mouth
Straight Pins or  Clear Tape 
Small circular lids to trace around (soda bottle, milk lids, etc)
Pen, chalk, or marker to trace with 
Googly eyes or buttons 
Pom-Poms

This is such a fun activity.  I had to fight the kids off to get these made!  To start with, print this basic template. 

Cut out the template and either tape or pin it to your brown felt.  To make two at a time, fold over the felt and cut both layers.  You can pin the layers together so they don't move.

It's way more fun if your template has a face!

Once you have your gingerbread man cut out, you can begin making the decorations.  

 I laid some rick rack across the arms and just snipped off the amount I needed.  

To make the gumdrop buttons, I used a lid from a half & half container and just traced around it, then cut them out.  You can also use pom-poms.

Next I made some hair.  I cut 12 pieces of yarn at about 18" each.  Then I found the middle and tied a double-knot with a small piece of yarn to give the hair a "part" and trimmed the ends off the knot.

 Next I left a little bit of yarn for bangs and started braiding.  I tied the end of the braid with a short piece of yarn and then trimmed all of the yarn even at the end.

You can see where we are so far.  Looks like we need some eyes and a mouth now!

For eyes, I glued googly eyes to a piece of felt to make it stick.  I also think it would be cute to use buttons glued to felt or you can trace or draw a freehand circle on the felt to cut out.
For the mouth I cut some small pieces of yarn.  I used red to look like licorice but feel free to use what you have.  Per my daughter's request, I also made lips out of felt.

 Here is our finished Gingerbread Girl.  Now it's ready for play!  You can show your child how some of the pieces are used or just turn them loose and see what they come up with!

We store all of our pieces in a zip-lock bag and keep it in our busy boxes.