Adding some fun background music while completing a math or reading mystery can create a positive working atmosphere in the classroom. Your student detectives will feel more immersed in the mystery task and, hopefully, be more motivated to persevere through the more challenging questions and puzzles. Like a workout, the type of music you choose to go with the rhythm of the activity is important. So, in this blog post, I've rounded up some music track suggestions, from YouTube, for you to readily find and play when doing a mystery activity at home or in the classroom. 

All of the graduation items have been stolen from the school hall! Almost, nothing has been left . . . almost. 

​Use this mystery prompt to see what ideas your students come up with about 'what could have happened?

Prep: Print and laminate the image below into a card to use for an early finisher or writing center activity.
OR
​Display on the board for a whole class writing activity. 

There are plenty of ways you may wish to use this prompt. If you would like some ideas, please keep reading below the image prompt.

If you use Math Mysteries, however hate the amount of paper that is required with all of the photocopying, you may like to try this reusable idea to save paper in the long run.

1. What were some of your proudest professional moments this year?
2. What areas do you feel like you have grown and improved as a teacher?
3. What would you have liked to see yourself do more of this year?
4. What teaching/learning challenges did you face during this year?
5. How did you overcome those challenges?
6. What were your biggest behavior challenges this year?
7. What strategies did you try to correct negative behaviors? What worked and what didn’t?
8. What would you do the same/ differently next year to manage behaviour?
9. Who was your most challenging student and why?
10. What caused you the most stress/frustration this year?
11. How did you handle the stressful and frustrating times?
12. What do you think you could do next year to minimize stress?
13. What would you do the same next year? 
14. Do you feel like you gave all of your students the best opportunity to grow and learn this year?
15. Which students do you think grew the most in your class? How?
16. What mistakes did you make this year? How can you avoid making them again next year?
17. What were the strengths of the strategies you used this year?
18. What strategies or approaches were not so successful? What were the outcomes and why do you think they didn't work?
19. How do you think students have benefited from being in your classroom this year?
20. What was a negative situation that you faced this year and handled in a positive way?
21. What are some new steps or strategies that you would like to try next year?
22. What opportunities did you give for your students to display what they know/learnt?
23. What were some of your students’ favorite activities this year? Which motivated and engaged them the most?
24. In what ways did you make your lessons suitable for 21st Century Learners?
25. What were some important tips or ideas that you learnt from collaborating with other teachers?
26. If you had to rate the difficulty for getting through this year personally, 1 being easy and 10 being ‘barely survived’, what rating would you give? Why?
27. What would you differently next year compared to this year?
28. How do you feel about your experience in the classroom this year? Did you enjoy it or did you find that you were always looking forward to the home bell?  
29. If you had to ask your students to give you feedback on your teaching, what responses do you think you would get? (You could even ask students to write feedback for you).
30. What are your goals as a teacher for next year?

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With the end of year closing in, the kids are becoming tired and restless . . . eager for the summer holidays to begin. So I've put together a list of some fun activities that will keep the kids engaged and still squeeze in some valuable learning.


Make a TV Commercial - Assign students a product (you could bring in some recycled packaging). They will need to create a TV Commercial to sell the product. You could record each commercial and watch again as a class, highlighting what techniques groups used to sell their product. I've sometimes turned this into a competition, where students have to vote for their favorite commercial presentation (excluding their own).

Put on a Play - Provide students with a script or get them to write their own to perform a drama performance in front of the rest of the class. Record each performance, and again you could turn this into a competition as well. 

Create a Brochure for a Summer Holiday - Students choose a destination to go on a summer holiday. They must research some information about the place, including what special features and attractions visitors must know about. Then design and create a brochure to promote their chosen place to go on a summer holiday.

Egg Drop - I still remember doing this when I was in school. Students design packaging that will hold an egg and keep it safe from a high drop. A fun hands on science project! 

Math Mysteries - These provide a fun approach to practicing math skills, and a great way to sneak in math at the end of the year. Students will love trying to solve the mystery while they discover clues along the way. I have developed a wide range of math mysteries for Grades 1-6 which are available on my TPT store . . . CLICK HERE TO VIEW

Math Projects - Students will love designing and creating with math projects, which also shows real world application of math skills that they have learnt. I've found math projects will motivate even some of my most reluctant students to get into math, so these are definitely a great way to go as the end of year approaches. There are plenty of math projects available out there. I have designed some myself to tailor for a more structured approach, you can find them HERE.

Trivia Competition - Create a series of questions that covers content learnt throughout the whole year. You could assign students topics to create trivia cards to add to the collection. Once enough questions have been made, split students into teams and do a trivia competition involving all of the question cards. The team with the most answers right wins!

Create a Board Game - Assign or let students choose a topic that was taught at some point throughout the school year. In pairs or small groups, they must design and create a board game that incorporates the theme of the topic. For example if the topic chosen is Egypt, students must create an Egyptian themed board game. For an extra challenge, require question cards to be incorporated into the game that demonstrates what students learnt from the unit. 

Write a Short Story - Using story prompts can excite and inspire students. Creative writing can be a calming and rewarding activity to do on one of those hot afternoons. Come up with some of your own prompts, use some visuals, or use some ready made prompts. If you need, you can find 50 creative writing prompts HERE.

Reinvent Lyrics to a Song - Some rules will need to be set in place, and be ready with an approved list of songs (I always check for inappropriate language and themes). You could assign a theme to each group to write their new song about. Their new song must be sung in tune with the music of the original song assigned. A challenging but fun music activity that will keep kids thinking but giggling at the end of the school year. 



Best of luck for the end of year to all of you!