This simple science activity is linked to the story of the Gingerbread Boy and provides an opportunity for a cross-curricular link to literacy. In the story, the runaway gingerbread boy reaches a river. Unable to swim across, he hitches a ride with a fox who eats him.

The questions to start the children thinking are “Could the gingerbread boy have swum across the river?”  and “How long could he have stayed in the water for?”

The children can test this out and find out for themselves.

You will need

• Gingerbread people (can buy multipacks quite cheaply or you can make your own!)
• Stopwatches
• Plastic cups
• Water
• Additional materials – milk, cola (to test liquids) and different fabrics such as aluminium foil, paper, cling film, cloth, etc (to make swim suits).

Method

Ask the children to guess how long the gingerbread boys will last in the water before you start.

Fill the cups half full with water, then put the biscuits into the water and immediately start the timer.

Observe what happens.

Check every 30 seconds to see if the gingerbread boy has gone too soft.

Stop the clock when he falls apart!

Taking this further.

What if the river was warmer? or colder? Would changing the temperature of the water affect how long he lasted?

What if he was escaping from Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory and the river was made of milk? Or chocolate milk, or cola? Would this have an effect?

Could the children test out different outfits for the gingerbread man to see if he can last longer? Try making a wetsuit out of paper, or cling film or aluminium foil? Test out different materials to see how waterproof they are.

You could also do this with older children and bring in a little more maths. If a gingerbread boy swims at (say) 5 centimeters per second. And the river is 20 meters wide. Could he make it across? How far could he actually swim in the time before he goes soggy?