With Earth Day around the corner, some of you may be doing the Earth Day Math Mystery, the Case of the Litterbug, as part of your themed math sessions. It's been around for a few years, and I've noticed every year some get confused with the tricky message revealed in CLUE 1. So, this year, I thought I'd write a short guide in the thinking process of this clue to help if it becomes too tricky or causes confusion.
So here is the clue message found in CLUE 1.
Next, let's look at the suspect list below:
If most of the mess happens at night, according to the clue, then we can conclude that the Litterbug is awake committing the crime at night.
Here's where some get tricked . . . What do you CROSS OFF the list? Looking at the information on the suspect list, it tells you whether each character sleeps in the day or night time. What would you cross off as possibly being the Litterbug? 1. Cross off all suspects who sleep in the day OR 2 Cross off all suspects who sleep in the night Think about it . . . You are correct if you answered #2 'Cross off all suspects who sleep in the night.' Here's why . . . If most of the mess is happening at night, then the Litterbug must NOT be a character who sleeps in the night time. The culprit is one of the day time sleepers. SO, you must cross off all of the night time sleepers because the Litterbug cannot be one of them if they were asleep at the time of the crime. 
Then, solve the rest of the clues to find out who to eliminate as the Litterbug until only one remains.
Clues MUST be completed in the order I've put them in. I recommend giving clue worksheets out one by one instead of giving the whole thing in one go. You can find this Earth Day Math Mystery in my TPT store to add to your lessons. Ideal for spiral math review, critical thinking, and deductive reasoning all rolled into one activity. There's an optional video hook provided to set the stage to engage too!
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AuthorA 21st century School Teacher, Mother, and Wife. 
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