3rd Grade Mystery Files
ENGAGE! Our third graders just spent a week using their literacy skills to solve a mystery case for our principal. I cannot even begin to tell you how much fun this unit was! We covered so many skills and strategies from characters, setting, problem-solution, drawing conclusions, making infereces, predicting...the list goes on.
We started our unit by telling the students that a crime had been committed. We played crime scene music and asked our principal to visit. She explained that her purse had been taken and she was very concerned about what had happened to it. She informed them that the local police department was extremely busy and that it could be months before they would be able to get to her case. She asked if they could help solve the case. They agreed and we gave them each an FBI badge and detective glasses.
Once we had established the crime, we quickly got to work investigating. We planned a five day unit with the last day being press release! Several teachers agreed to be a part of our investigation and we informed the students of our prime suspects.
Each day the students were given a new crime file with clues leading to the prime suspect. These included activities such as task cards, passages, text copies with questions, etc. Once students completed the "file" for the day they were given a clue that led them one step closer to solving the crime.
On Friday, we held a press release for the entire third grade. Prior to the press release we spent some time discussing what it was and its purpose. The students prepped for the press release by including the evidence, clues, and their prediction of who the prime suspect was. We discussed that all suspects should be considered innocent until proven guilty. We brainstormed possible questions to ask the final suspect and wrote them down. We selected a few "speakers" to deliver the case summary.
In the end we discovered that our sweet secretary had simply moved the principal's purse and forgot to tell her. waaaah waaaah waaaah!
Over all the students had an amazing time and learned so many skills that they had previously struggled with. If you are interested in trying this unit for yourselves, I have uploaded it to my TPT website and you can find it here. I have included the actual unit that we used as well as editable slides to make it your own.