The Gingerbread Man Loose in the Library!

Every year in the second semester, I start teaching the parts, or different sections, of the library to my first graders.  I wanted a fun way to review these different parts, but not be too overwhelming, while my older students reviewed Dewey. 

I love funny books, and so do the kids!  I thought of the story, The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School, and had a fun idea where students could use clues to find different areas of the library.  Once they found that area, they would then find a missing piece of the Gingerbread Man.  Once all 6 clues were solved, they would then put together their gingerbread to form a whole "man"!

So, then I had to think - what areas did I really want them to recognize, but not repeat the activity from the week before, our Library Survivor.  There, I emphasized books like graphic novels, that the students started getting into at the end of last year.  I decided with the Gingerbread Man to stick with more general areas - nonfiction, fairy tales, fiction, circulation desk, fiction ("chapter books"), and computers where we look up books (although they won't be learning about Destiny, our online catalog, until the following week!).

So, I'm excited about what I came up with AND the fact that I was thinking ahead and decided to color-coordinate!  Each group will have a color to look for (to avoid chaos) that matches their clue cards.  So red clue cards = red team = red gingerbread parts!  You know sometimes those thoughts don't come until after the activity! :)

Here's what I came up with!  If you're interested in seeing more, I listed it on TPT and Teacher's Notebook.  I also included blank cards since every library is different, so you could program your own!