Mystery Prompt #1

Whether you are looking for some inspiration to get your kids excited to write a story, or want to have a fun 'detective' discussion, the prompt in this post can be used for just that and more.

SUGGESTION FOR USE

• Present the image above to your class. Either show on the Interactive Whiteboard, or print and hang somewhere.
• Instruct student to take a few minutes to read and study the picture. They will need to come up with ideas or theories about what they think could have happened in the scene. Setting a timer for 'thinking time' is recommended. 
• Invite students to share their ideas with the rest of the class. Remind students that there are no 'right' or 'wrong' answers. It is about offering theories and using the knowledge that you have been given to back it up. This also opens up the discussion for students to 'politely' have an argument in a guided discussion exploring everyone's ideas and reasoning. You may wish to do a brainstorm of ideas on the board.
• Set a writing task to follow the discussion. Instruct students to pretend they are detectives and must write what they think happened. ​A simple print and go template for this writing task can be downloaded below. Otherwise you could just use plain lined paper or workbooks to carry out the writing activity. 

basic_crime_scene_theory_writing_template.pdf
File Size:	427 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

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Remind everyone that there's no right and wrong, otherwise there would be no room for creative thinking in this task.

• To develop this as a writing activity, you could extend it by having your students work towards writing a full story around this crime scene. To do this, I would break sessions into 'creating characters,' 'describing the setting' and what happened in the lead up to the crime scene. ​

Now, I think it is only fair for students to find out what actually happened. Was anyone close to figuring it out?
You may wish to skip this option, but to shed some light to the mystery prompt, here's my story of what happened in the video below.

• ​After viewing the video, discuss if anyone had any similar ideas in their stories. Do a compare and contrast session with the story above and what students wrote.
• Further extend this mystery activity by instructing students to rewrite their mystery story using the ideas from the video. Do they think Coolrog really did it? Why/Why not?

You may have noticed the 'Math Mystery' tag in the video, and that is because this case can be further resolved and integrated with a math activity if you wish. 

Solve the case! Is Coolrog really innocent? Or which monster should be put behind bars for this crime?
If you are interested in extending this mystery activity by integrating it with your math lesson and giving your students lots of multiplication practice and review, click on your grade level below to find the file case  on my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Be sure to check out the product description to see the specific multiplication skills covered in that grade version. 

Not sure what a math mystery is? Do you want to know more about how to use them? Check out the video below. 

You may also like to read this blog post
'Five Easy Ways to Use Math Mysteries in your Classroom.'

Still not sure if a math mystery is something you want? Try a full FREE math mystery available to download from my TPT Shop. The link will redirect you to where you can download the multi-grade bundle.  It is free to register if you don't have a login with TPT.
CLICK HERE to find in my TPT store.