DAPHNE — “Have you seen the Gingerbread Man?”

That was the question asked all morning by Christ the King Catholic School kindergarten students on the second day of school, Aug. 23.

Their teachers, Julia Otto and Jeannie Cink, read them the classic children’s folktale “The Gingerbread Man.” As the story goes, the gingerbread man is baked by an elderly couple in their kitchen, but when they took him out of the oven, he ran away.

He led them on a chase through the countryside, and slipped out of many tight spots.

In the meantime, he covered a lot of ground.

At CKCS, Otto and Cink baked a gingerbread man for the students in the gym’s kitchen. But when the students went to the oven to eat the gingerbread man, he was gone.

So began the kindergartners’ tour of their new campus.

Their first stop was to the gym, where they met physical education teacher, Barbara Collinsworth. Otto asked Collinsworth if she had seen the gingerbread man.

“No, but I sure heard a lot of noise here in the kitchen, while I was trying to teach my first-period PE class,” she answered.

The kindergartners walked through the gym on their way to the counselor’s office. They asked some eighth-grade girls if they’d seen the gingerbread man. Only one said she saw a shiny streak go by, but wasn’t sure what it was she had seen.

Susan Pearson, a resource counselor, answered the door to her office and came out into the hall to talk with the children. But she had not seen him either.

Next Otto led them to the technology lab, where they were greeted by Sherry Cook, technology coordinator and computer teacher. She hadn’t seen the gingerbread man, but she read them a book about computers.

The students visited Kim Walker, in the school’s front office, and Sara Mattingly, the principal’s secretary. Neither had seen the gingerbread man but there were gingerbread crumbs on Walker’s counter. The children inspected the crumbs carefully.

They even got to go into Principal Sr. Maureen Nolan’s office. But there wasn’t a trace of him there.

The children found gingerbread crumbs on the floor in the library across the hall from Sr. Maureen’s conference room. The librarian, Liz Philbrick, took them into the story pit where she plans to read them stories.

Then the students traveled down the hall to the art room, where they met art teacher, Sue Bostwick. She had not seen the gingerbread man but she did show them some of things they will be doing this year.

The children also visited Monette Hopton in the Christ the King Church office, but she had not seen the gingerbread man.

The kindergartners returned to their classrooms for lunch and an afternoon nap — a little disappointed, perhaps, but much more familiar with the CKCS campus.

To their surprise, the gingerbread man was there waiting for them when they awoke from their naps.

What a journey — and what a way — to begin their school career at Christ the King.