Gingerbread Houses

My first year teaching I remember thinking, "How will I ever get my kids to focus enough to work the day before Christmas break?" Then, my mother suggested that I create gingerbread houses with them. Well, 12 years later we are still making the houses. However, I never used gingerbread. Instead, we use graham crackers and royal icing. All the kids have to supply are the decorations for their homes. They each have a "property" (posterboard cut to 6"x6") that they build the house on and then can landscape around it. Once the houses are all built, they join "Gingerbread Village" on my countertop and the teachers all come in to judge them. I give extra credit to the winners and at the end of the day the kids take their houses home (if they make it that far before being devoured!). Here are some pictures of my 8th graders making their houses.