The Gingerbread Man is missing.

That realization sent Mrs. Bennett’s UPK students at C.R. Weeks Elementary scrambling. Each year, the students learn about the Gingerbread Man, who lives in a wooden house in the class. 

 

 

“We read a variety of books about him, his sister (the Gingerbread Girl) and many of his relatives.  We put him to sleep in his house every afternoon (for a week) and check in on him after reading a gingerbread book each day.  We were all so surprised when we opened his house and he was gone,” said Mrs. Bennett.

But he didn’t just go missing once.

“This year he got out of our classroom four times! The Pre-K detectives could not find him in our classroom so we had several adventures around the school,” said Mrs. Bennett.   

 

 

On the first day, students found him in the nurse's office.  

“He had run down the hall and scraped his knee.  Mrs. Schmidt (our school nurse) took very good care of him.  She washed his knee and put a bandage on it,” said Mrs. Bennett.  

But, the Gingerbread Man wasn’t done with his adventures. 

 

 

“The next day we found him in Mr. Kennerup's Office.  The Gingerbread Man was helping ‘Mr.Ray’ clean the school and was very  proud of his work. On Thursday the sneaky Gingerbread Man was found in Mrs. Beriman's office.  He was watching a video about himself, had eaten Mrs. Beriman's zucchini muffin, and was taking a selfie.  The students laughed and laughed.  The following Monday the students followed gingerbread clues all the way to the cafeteria.  When they arrived, they found Ms. Tina and the Gingerbread Man covered with a hair net, apron, gloves and a spatula.  He had helped Ms. Tina bake cookies for all of my students,” said Mrs. Bennett.

So, how to finally keep the Gingerbread Man in his house? Well, the class decided to paint some gingerbread people so that the Gingerbread Man would have some friends and want to stay in the classroom.  

 

 

“Their idea worked. The next day when we looked into the Gingerbread Man's house, he had stayed. Now the Gingerbread Man stays in our classroom and watches us learn and grow each day,” said Mrs. Bennett. “Even though we were hoping he would stay in our classroom, the Gingerbread Man helped us meet some very important people around our school.”