Lost in the Library | School-Wide PBL Stage Play PreK-5 | Student-Run Script & Production Kit

Lost in the Library is play 4 of 8 in a school-wide project-based learning series. After the last bell, two students, Nia and Ben, get locked in the school library and discover that the characters in the books come to life at night. But tonight the characters are lost: pages have been mixed up and every genre is in the wrong place. With help from the librarian, the custodian, a reading volunteer and the public library's children's librarian, the students sort the stories into their genres (fairy tale, mystery, informational, poetry, adventure and biography) and help the characters find their way home. They leave with a plan for a family reading night.

Your students don't just perform it. They produce it. Your whole school becomes a student production company, with meaningful jobs for every grade from PreK to Grade 5 (or 6): actors and chorus groups, stage crew, set design, marketing and advertising, social media planning, ticket sales, front of house, logistics and community partnerships. Teachers, specialists, the principal, custodian, cafeteria team, nurse, counselor, PTA/PTO, families and community partners all have a role, while students lead.

Big Question: How can our student production company inspire our whole community to read more, and use our library?

What's inside

• 44-page print-ready PDF
• Original 25-30-minute script with chorus parts for PreK-Grade 3, speaking roles for Grades 2-6 and songs set to public-domain tunes
• The SOAR Project Pathway (Spark, Open up, Act, Reveal), a 4-step project plan, plus standards (CCSS ELA and math, National Core Arts Standards for theatre, SEL)
• The Student Production Company: 8 departments, roles for every grade PreK-6, stakeholder roles and an 8-week project calendar
• 16 job cards, job application (with a PreK-1 drawing version), audition sheet and cast list
• Department workbooks: script research interviews, set design planner, props and costumes tracker, stage manager cue sheet, rehearsal schedule, marketing plan, poster template, morning announcements, social media planner (posted by an adult), numbered tickets, ticket sales tracker, program, budget and front-of-house checklist
• Letters for families, staff and community partners, plus thank-you notes
• Feedback-and-improve protocol, rubrics (Grades 3-6 and PreK-2 I Can statements), reflections, audience survey and certificate
• Fully editable Word file (script and every form) and editable production meeting slides (PowerPoint)

LOW PREP: Show the kickoff slides, read the script aloud and hold the job fair. Each department gets its own pages, and the calendar carries the rest. Change the school name and adapt lines in the Word file.

Performance license: perform at your school as often as you like, with or without ticket sales.

Designed by a classroom teacher and instructional coach. Illustrations are created with AI tools; all content is written and reviewed for standards alignment and classroom use.