Preschoolers are old enough to be involved in the process of mixing ingredients. Taking them through each step will help them understand the baking process from beginning to end, which is the way most young people best comprehend information. Make a list of ingredients on the board before the mixing begins. Ask preschoolers if they know what each ingredient is. Ask them what each feels like, looks like, smells like and tastes like. Show the class each ingredient and explain what part it plays in the cookie-making process. Finally, ask them why they think making holiday cookies might be a good idea. They can decorate the cookies with holiday colors and images, and give them to family and friends. As you begin, divide preschoolers into even teams. Have an adult supervisor help each team measure and mix the dough.
Collect holiday-shaped cookie cutters, such as Christmas trees, Stars of David, turkeys, pumpkins, Santa Claus figures, snowmen and Kwanzaa kinara (candle holder). Include symbols of diverse faiths and lesser-known holidays, such as Kwanzaa. Whether or not you have pupils in the class who celebrate this holiday, you want to expose them to different traditions and ways of life. Explain what each shape is before allowing pupils to cut the dough.
A good alternative or addition to cookie cutters are flour-coated rubber stamps. With rubber stamps of holiday imagery, pupils can decorate cookies with multiple pictures and patterns. Find holiday stamps with pictures, letters and patterns relating to the holidays you are celebrating or recognizing. Coat the picture side of the stamp in flour. Press the stamps into the soft dough as you would on paper.
Decorating the cookies might be the most fun and messiest part of the process. Icing, sprinkles and candies such as gumdrops and chocolate kisses can be used to draw on cookies after they've baked and cooled. Lay butcher paper over the preschoolers' work table for easy cleanup. Provide decorative ingredients in bowls, including soft-edged spreading knives for the icing. Ask pupils to decorate a cookie to give to someone else, such as a classmate or family member. Pupils can present their best cookie to the class, or exchange them as a final class activity.