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. 

For ELA based mysteries, I developed two series that are structured differently:
- The Once Upon a Crime Reading Mysteries
AND
- The Private Eye CSI Literacy Mysteries

I'm often asked what's the difference between the two, so I thought this week it would be helpful to write a post to explain the difference and show samples from each type of resource. 

The original Once Upon a Crime Reading Mystery Series follow a 'crack the code' format to reveal the clue. This has worked well for many students in many different classrooms. However, since no student or class is the same, recently I decided to develop a new structure that will give teachers the option to change the way these reading mysteries are delivered to best suit their students.  In this post, I will explain this new
​'B-Edition' structure and the new addition of word banks added to the original Once Upon a Crime Reading Packets.  

Last week I wrote a post explaining 'What are Once Upon a Crime Reading Mysteries?' In this post, I aim to give you some implementation ideas and suggestions for using these reading mystery resources in your classroom.

The Reading Mysteries - Once Upon a Crime™ series are a unique design I created to encourage and develop skills in:

• reading, 
• finding text evidence,
• vocabulary,
• spelling,
• comprehension, and
• critical thinking skills.

The stories in these packets are my original work, set in a place called Tale Town. I've drawn inspiration from fictional characters found in children's literature, with my own twists and quirks added along the way. For example, a popular character you might see popping up in these mysteries from time to time is Bert, the Big Bad Wolf. In the 
​Forest Grime packet, we find out that Bert, is the boss of the Wolf Manufacturing Co. on Tall Street. See sample snippet below from the start of the reading passage in Clue 4: