First-graders Solve Gingerbread Man Mystery

This was in this week's Coffey County Republican. It's such a creative way to reinforce a joy of reading that I had to add it to the blog. The picture shows Principal Houchin and two class members discussing the missing gingerbread man.

From the Coffey County Republican, Dec. 14, 2007, pp 7, 10.

Amy Johnson
Reporter

WAVERLY — Yvonne Houchin’s first-grade class began the day in an ordinary way, Friday, Dec. 7, with the usual reading and writing assignments. About midmorning,the class took a break and worked together to make a gingerbread man. When the class went to retrieve
the gingerbread man from the school’s kitchen, he was gone. School cooks, Sandra McNabb and Dana Kistner, told the class that when they took him out of the oven, he jumped off the cookie sheet and took off running down the hall. They tried to catch him, but were unsuccessful.

Confused and concerned, the first-graders returned to the classroom to put together clues about where their gingerbread an might be. Some of the clues included a note left by the gingerbread man saying he had just begun his life and didn’t want to be eaten, suspicious crumbs in the hallway, and many unconfirmed sightings of the wayward gingerbread man at different locations around the school. However, he still remained at large.

Houchin sent the students in groups to different classrooms to ask the teachers and students if they had seen their gingerbread man. Most said no, and a few just laughed when asked if they had seen a gingerbread man with licorice eyes and buttons running around the school. But, Waverly Grade School Principal Tony Houchin told two students he did see the cookie frantically running down the hall toward the library. He said he tried to catch him, because of his strict policy of no running in the hall, but the gingerbread man was just too fast.

School custodian Dennis Tyson also said he saw the gingerbread man hurrying toward the fifth grade room, but was also unsuccessful in catching him. Armed with this information, the students told their classmates, and the first-graders quickly and quietly rushed to Patt Bray’s fifth-grade room before he could get away again.

When they arrived in the room, the fifth-graders were gone to computer class. This made it easier for the first-graders to roam around the room to search for the gingerbread man, as they were sure he had to be there. Haley Fischer was the first to sight the gingerbread man underneath the fifth-grade Christmas tree. He was trapped in a large zip-loc bag and had unfortunately suffered a broken leg during the escape attempt. The first-graders decided after all of the trouble the gingerbread man went through to not be eaten, they would respect his wishes. The gingerbread man now sits in the classroom, watching over the students and enjoying his freedom.