This week, while I've been watching the Great British Bake Off, I started thinking about the "building" part of these various tasks that the bakers face. They are able to craft quite spectacular creations out of flour, sugar, and eggs, and it dawned on me as I was planning my next week's activities -- let's literally build empires.
I've loved doing the Frankenempire or autopsy versions of this activity, but this time, I'm going to work with my students to build gingerbread empires And, yes, I think we will cap this off with actual gingerbread or graham cracker houses to form a village.
Using this template to create the six sides of the house out of cardstock (two roof pieces, two side pieces, and two end pieces) for the five componets: political, military, economic, social, weakness...and a bonus side for showcasing a piece of art or architecture from the empire). Fingers crossed that the students will see where I'm heading with this.