Mini Series Introduction: Let’s Be Detectives! 🕵️

Note to Parents:

I am going to try something new with my blog: creating mini-lessons that are designed to be fun and less academic. Learning should be fun!

Each Mini-Series will have a theme. This time, we willl be focusing on “Crime”. Don’t worry- it won’t be real! Students will become detectives to solve small mysteries, and there will be accompanying writing/speaking prompts to let kids practice explaining their ideas in detail. Again, these lessons are for fun, and shouldn’t feel like homework!

My hope is that students will find the later mysteries more challenging, which will in turn require deeper thinking skills.

It is very important to ask students why—not just the answer. The goal is to practice either–or both–writing or speaking outputs.

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Here is a simple example mystery:

Mystery: Who Took the Cookie?

Story:
Mom made 3 cookies.
Now, 1 cookie is gone.
Tom, Anna, and Ben are in the room.

Clues:

• Tom has chocolate on his hands.
• Anna says, “I don’t like cookies.”
• Ben is sleeping.

Question:
👉 Who took the cookie?

Answer Frame:
👉 “I think ___ took the cookie because ___.”

(The answer is pretty obvious here, I hope!)

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Here is an example worksheet that will be used for each mystery:

Again, the goal is to have kids explaining their ideas in detail. I really recommend having your child use as many of the words in the word bank as possible, so that they can get used to having to think a little more deeply about their sentences.

Links to each mystery lesson:

Mystery #1:

Mini Series: Let’s Be Detectives! 🕵️ Mystery #1

Mystery #2:

Mystery #3:

Good Luck, Detectives! 🤪