The Reading Mysteries – Once Upon a Crime™ series are a unique design I created to encourage and develop skills in:
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:
You will not find these stories anywhere else and no extra books need to be purchased to use this resource. Everything (except paper and ink) is included within the download.
In this post, I will explain and showcase what to expect from these Reading Mystery – Once Upon a Crime™ packets to give you a better idea what they are about. Then, next week, I will post some implementation suggestions, followed by add-on ideas for extensions.
Preparation
After downloading the resource, you will need to:
– Print the PDF file
– Make as many copies of the pdf file as needed for your students
– Get pens, pencils, and some highlighters
If you would like to show the optional video hook, have this ready for viewing on a tablet, desktop computer, or IWB before beginning.
Now you’re ready to begin!
Video Hook
Capture attention with the video hook! The video hooks are designed to make students question what is going on? What could this mystery be about? But they will have to READ to find out.
What to expect? Below is the video hook for the Christmas Reading Mystery – Once Upon a Crime: RESCUE RUDOLPH to check out an example.
The Intro Reading Story Page:
After the video finishes, direct your students to start reading the first page of the mystery. See a sample preview page below from Rescue Rudolph:
The Possible Suspects List
After reading the first page, your students will see the possible suspects page that they must refer back to after discovering a clue.
Below is a sample page of the ‘Possible Suspects’ list from the Reading Mystery – Once upon a Crime, Humpty’s Fall:
The above list is from Humpty’s Fall.
Each Reading Mystery packet has a possible suspect list similar to this, with different characters and different categories (the character traits column is always one of the categories). Students must keep this page handy as they work through the clues. After discovering a clue, students must comprehend the message and use logical thinking to decide what the information is telling them to cross off the list. Whole rows must be eliminated at a time. If done correctly, after all five clues are completed, only one suspect row will be left on the list – that’s the culprit!
The Five Clue Pages
Reading the passage is a must to help with completion of the puzzle section.
To ‘prove’ that your students read, they must highlight the evidence in the text to show where they found the answers in the puzzle.
Completion of the puzzle will help crack the code of the clue message at the bottom of the page. See sample image from The Haunting Hat below:
It’s important to complete the clues in the correct order for this to work and for the story to make sense.
Some puzzles involve answering comprehension questions, others involve vocabulary work.
The skills incorporated into puzzles varies from mystery to mystery. I recommend checking the product description under the ‘SKILLS TARGETED’ section to check suitability. See the example for the Reading Mystery, Egg-Pocalypse below.
Please note: Stay tuned, I’m updating all of these reading mysteries to have an alternative structure option in each packet that will help to differentiate these reading activities. I will write and show examples of the new B-Edition addition to these resources soon.
At the end of the Reading Mystery
See a sample page from Once Upon a Crime, Stolen Time below:
Article Rewards
See below a partial article award sample from the Once Upon a Crime, Poisoned Valentine Reading Mystery. I’ve cut the award image off right before the guilty character is mentioned in the article story – just so the answer isn’t given away.
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I will be continuing to make more of these Reading Mystery – Once Upon a Crime™ resources. You can currently buy them individually or in a Growing Bundle on my TPT store.
