math mystery resources with their kids. I’ve been creating these mystery math activities for over seven years and selling the packets on my TPT store and website shop. I’ve read feedback comments left on these math resources; while I’ve seen it successful for most, I’ll be honest in saying that a few encountered a problem or two. If this includes you, there’s a chance that you might be making one of these math mystery mistakes. Read on to find out how to avoid these common math mystery mistakes and make the most out if these math resources.
How to differentiate with Math Mysteries
– quickly become overwhelmed with the amount of work
– skip ahead with clues
– your class will not all be up to the same point in the mystery, so your fast workers might spoil the solution before the rest of the class finish.
I recommend giving your students one clue at a time. Check for completion and elimination understanding before giving them the next worksheet clue. To keep it from becoming overwhelming for some kids or having your kids scattered at different parts, pacing it a clue a day works great. There are always five clues, so you can make it a mystery of the week to work through.
For example:
In the Free Math Mystery, The Case of the Super Bad Superhero, one of the clues reveals that a lady could scare off the bad hero with cookies. Looking at the suspect list and reading the clue, detectives, you can conclude that our guilty suspect has a weakness to cookies. Here is where the mistake might happen – they eliminate the characters with a weakness to cookies instead of the other way around! If your guilty character has something stated, you should be crossing out the other options and keeping only characters with a weakness to cookies as the possible Super Bad Superhero!
For more information, read this blog post that explains a guide to a clue in the Case of the Litterbug.
free <here>!
