Along with decorating a cookie and icing gingerbread house, children will love this gingerbread house coloring page with gingerbread people finger puppets! This printable pretend play set, created exclusively for us by author and illustrator, Melanie Hope Greenberg, is perfect for a winter holiday break boredom buster or snow day activity.
How to Make the Gingerbread House and Finger Puppets
The gingerbread coloring page is mostly self explanatory, but here are the instructions just in case you need a little assistance.
What you need:
- Colored pencils or crayons
- Scissors
- Tape
- White paper or card stock
The gingerbread house and puppets coloring page. Print it out here (By clicking on the following link you agree to our terms of service* see end of post) -->: Gingerbread puppets coloring page
Instructions:
Children may color the gingerbread house and people any way they like! Don't limit their color palette! I recommend against telling them what colors they "should" use, or telling them, "Stay in the lines!" Pink gingerbread people and blue gingerbread houses are representative of a child's unique creative style. Don't stifle it!
Next, cut out the puppets and the house. Let your child cut them out by themselves, if they wish. No need to stay close to the edge at all. Just like with the coloring, give your child the freedom to practice their scissor skills. Some children, however have lower tolerance for "mistakes" than others, but a little encouragement sometimes does the trick.
Make the house:
Fold the seams of the house as shown in the photo. It is not necessary to fold the sides at a 90 degree angle, but if you do, you can also tape the walls to the base. Leaving the walls wide open can act as a kind of play stage for the puppets. The choice is yours. Or print out multiple houses to make a village!
In fact, you will probably want to put together our holiday village shops coloring page to add to the pretend play set!
Make the puppets:
Wrap the puppet tabs around the child's finger to get the size just right. An adult or other friend can hold the tabs in place and securely tape them together.
Ideas for Using the Gingerbread Coloring Page
Having a holiday party or book club meeting? Add these coloring pages to an activity table or send them home as party favors. Don't forget the gingerbread people cookies!
The same goes for library or classroom story time. After reading the classic fairy tale The Gingerbread Man, send kids over to the activity table set up with coloring page and needed materials.
Create a paper village around the Christmas tree using multiple gingerbread houses, our village shops, as well as our paper pizza parlor and school house.
More holiday coloring pages:
About the Illustrator
Melanie Hope Greenberg may not be made of gingerbread, but she's just as sweet. She's an award winning author and illustrator of more than 15 children’s books. She was an Artist-In-Residence at the Eric Carle Museum and her books have been featured as a NY Times Great Children's Read. Her cheerful, vibrant illustrations can be found in books such as Good Morning, Digger, Down in the Subway and A City Is.
One of Melanie's favorite parts of being an author/illustrator is talking about her craft with students at libraries and in classrooms. You can learn more about author visits (virtual or in-person) at her website.
Melanie's iconic book, Mermaids on Parade, is available at your local library! It was selected as a Bank Street Best Book, and for the Texas Reading Club and PBS Kids Summer Reading Lists. It was named one of the Top Reprints of 2019 by Fuse#8.
*Terms of Service: this coloring page is used with permission from Melanie Hope Greenberg and is for non-commercial use ONLY. You many print out as many copies as you like for personal, library or classroom use. If you would like to share this coloring page, you MUST link to this blog page. It is expressly forbidden to link directly to the coloring page pdf file.
Leave a Reply