This is the last mystery in the series! Good luck!
🔍 Read the Story
The teacher puts 5 cupcakes on the table for the class party. Before lunch, all 5 cupcakes are there. After lunch, one cupcake is missing. Three students are in the classroom: Ava, Daniel, and Sophie.
🧩 Look at the Clues
Ava has pink frosting on her notebook.
Daniel says, “I went back to the classroom after lunch.”
Sophie is carrying three clean paper plates.
Question:
👉What happened?
I think __________ took the cupcake because _________________.
Bonus:
👉 Find ONE clue that is not very important.
I think __________________ is not an important clue because ________________________.
This story is more open ended, with multiple possible answers! Make sure to have a clear argument or reason.
🔍 Read the Story
The teacher has a red marker. After class, the marker is gone. Now, the marker is on the floor. Three students are in the classroom: Emma, Ryan, and Lily.
🧩 Look at the Clues
Emma is standing near the teacher’s desk.
Ryan says, “I did not touch the marker.”
Lily has a notebook with red marks inside.
Question:
👉What happened?
👉I think __________ moved the marker because __________________________.
Bonus:
👉
Can you think of a different idea? Maybe ______________ because ______________.
⏱️ Grammar Time: Simple Present Tense!(Habits and Facts)
This tense is for things you do every day or things that are always true.
Rule 1️⃣: Singular vs. Plural Action
When the subject is He, She, It, or one person/thing (Singular), we add-s, -es, or -ies to the verb.
Examples: He runs fast. My sister wishes for a puppy. The baby cries loudly.
When the subject is I, You, We, They, or more than one person/thing (Plural), the verb stays in its base form.
Examples: I run fast. We wish for a puppy. The babies cry loudly.
Rule 2️⃣: Making it Negative or Asking Questions
We use the helper words do or does to make a sentence negative or to ask a question. The main verb must always be in the base form after do or does! (Base form means that the verb is just the word, and has not been changed at all.)
Subject
Negative (Don’t / Doesn’t)
Question (Do / Does)
Negative Question
He, She, It
Doesn’t + Base Verb
Does + Subject + Base Verb?
Doesn’t + Subject + Base Verb?
I, You, We, They
Don’t + Base Verb
Do + Subject + Base Verb?
Don’t + Subject + Base Verb?
Negative Example: She doesn’t know the answer. They don’t know the answer.
Negative Question Example:Doesn’t he like chocolate? Don’t we need a coat?
Here are several worksheets that practice using the Simple Present Tense in both sentence and question forms, as well as their negative forms:
First, let’s remember what an adjective is. An adjective is a word that describes a person, a place, or a thing. It gives us more information about a noun.
For example, in the sentence, “The happy girl played,” the word ‘happy’ is an adjective that describes the girl.
There are many different kinds of adjectives that tell us different things. Let’s look at some of them:
Opinion Adjectives: These words tell us what someone thinks about something.
📖 This second worksheet might prove a bit more challenging, as they have to first find the adjective on their own. I recommend not letting your child look at the list of types of adjectives for an added challenge.
Hopefully if you are doing this lesson, you at least have an idea of what an ADJECTIVE and an ADVERB are! However, if you forgot, here’s a short review:
Both are about describing something. What is the difference?
ADJECTIVES describe NOUNS, and ADVERBS describe VERBS.
🌟🌟Make sure you know what a noun and verb are before starting this lesson!🌟🌟
What are adjectives? Adjectives are words that describe nouns. Remember, nouns are people, places, things, or animals (like boy, park, book, cat). Adjectives tell us what a noun looks like, feels like, how big it is, or what color it is.
Think about a happy girl. (Happy tells us about the girl!)
Look at a big house. (Big tells us about the house!)
See a red apple. (Red tells us about the apple!)
Pat a fluffy cat. (Fluffy tells us about the cat!)
What are adverbs? Adverbs are words that describe verbs (actions!). They tell us how, when, or where something happens. Many adverbs end with -ly!
He runs quickly. (Quickly tells us how he runs!)
She sings loudly. (Loudly tells us how she sings!)
They play happily. (Happily tells us how they play!)
Here is a worksheet to practice both adjectives and adverbs! There are 4 different exercises available. On the story writing page (Exercise 4), feel free to bring it to me to have it checked!
Something that I always strongly, strongly emphasize in my lessons is making sentences longer. Don’t just give me a boring, short sentence; try to add more RELEVANT information. However, 1st graders really struggle with this, so it’s like a daily game of tug-of-war, trying to get them to add details.
So, today I’m going to create some practice for that! And I’m going to specifially use the W words (plus one H) to do so.
You should know the W words, say them with me now:
Who?
What?
Where?
When?
How?
So, how can we use these to improve our writing?
Ask yourself these questions when you write sentences:
Who? – Who is in the sentence?
What? – What are they doing?
Where? – Where is it happening?
When? – When is it happening?
How? – How are they doing it?
I want you to learn how to create a picture in your mind, with all of these questions being answered.
If you are struggling to remember each part, try counting them on your fingers, and put one finger down when you do write it:
That way, you can write without forgetting each part and having to look back at the list of words.
Here’s a very awesome, amazing, well-written sentence that took me HOURS to come up with:
The dog runs.
What do you think? Great, right? 😀
…No?
Yeah… it’s a sad sentence with no cool W words. So, let’s try to answer the questions and add some fun words:
Who? – Who is in the sentence? —> The big brown dog
What? – What are they doing? —> running around the park
Where? – Where is it happening? —> in the park
When? – When is it happening? —> on a sunny day
How? – How are they doing it? —> very fast
Remember, there is no correct answer to these. It’s all up to you and your imagination. When you have a boring sentence, try to put the sentence into a cool world with lots of ideas. But, make sure it makes sense!
Next, we should put all these idea together into one cool, awesome, spectacular sentence.
Try your best to put them all together into ONE sentence. Avoid making 2. You don’t have to just put them in the same order as you first wrote them! Mix it up! Sentences are clay, and you can mix the colors just like you want to! You can always erase words that you dont need. Just keep the MAIN parts, the ones that answer the W questions.
This is how I might mix these into a sentence:
The big brown dog was running around the park very fast on a sunny day.
we just made this picture! 🙂
Now, it’s time for you to try!!! Yipee!!!
Make these 10 gross, sad sentences into amazing, cool, incredible ones, using W words:
