Yuck! What is that green stuff everywhere?
Oh no! The vault is empty!
Use this mystery prompt to see what ideas your students come up with about ‘what could have happened?
Visual prompt and lesson suggestions included, read on for more!
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.
Lesson Suggestions:
Present the image above to your class. Either show on the Interactive Whiteboard, or print and hang somewhere. If using as an early finisher activity, print and laminate these images as cards.
Either brainstorm as a class or instruct students to think about what could have happened in the image 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. This prompt is to invite creative thinking.
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:
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.
Further extend this mystery activity by instructing students to rewrite their mystery story using the ideas from the video. Do they think is the thief?
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! Who is the Sticky Bank Burglar?
If you are interested in extending this mystery activity by integrating it with your math lesson and giving your students lots of money practice and review, click on your grade level below to find the file case on my Teachers Pay Teachers store. This money math mystery is available for US, Canadian and Australian currencies. Be sure to check out the product description to see the specific money skills covered in that grade version.
US Currency Versions
CANADIAN Currency Versions
AUSTRALIAN Currency Versions
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.
