I already have a door display of a detective but I was needing some ideas on how I can relate this theme to my classroom library. I thought of "Research Station" but I think I will use that for the computers. Any ideas?
I am also going with this theme. Since I am a new teacher to the school, I have been referred to as the mystery teacher, and in my summer letter I have asked the kids to make mystery bags (the idea was on this site) to bring to school the first day. I am going to call the bb with rules, procedures, etc "Classroom Clues". Where did you get the door display, or did you make it yourself. Unfortunately I am not that artistic. For a library, you could call it "Searching For a Good Book" or "Reading Slueths". Do you have a jobs chart? I am thinking of either only having 2 helpers a week and calling them Lil slueths, or coming up with some sort of magnifying glass, etc to use as the job chart. Please share any other ideas you may have for this theme, as I haven't been able to find much out there already!
Last edited by christine; 07-09-2006 at 09:47 AM..
I love this mystery idea and all the helpful hints the previous respondents have shared! I am a new teacher as well and was hoping I would find some helpful hints on this forum. If anyone has anything else to offer regarding the Mystery Detective Theme please share! Thanks.
*Ceiling Decorations: Make giant questions marks of different color to hang from the ceiling. Student could each decorate them the first few days of school all about themselves.
*Nametags: Make student nametags that are magnifying glasses, cut out a circular photo of students and glue in the center of the magnifying glass.
*Star of the Week: Have students fill out a questionairre the first week of school. Choose a different "Mystery Person" star of the week every week. Each day, reveal one clue about the person. On Friday, reveal who it was.
*AR Goals: If you do AR reading, you could make a large bulletin board for goals with the title "Hot on the case toward on goals!" Give each student a detective to color and move throughout the board. You could do a green background with trees and such. It might even be cute to glue student photos as heads for the detectives.
*Job Chart: A title "Helping Out Is No Mystery!" with students names on small cardstock. If you glue a paper magnifying glass to a library pocket, you could cut it out and then when you slide the cardstock names in, they would show through the glass. Jobs could be written on each handle.
*Reading Incentive: Let students sign their name to a "Super Sleuth" log everytime they read any type of mystery book. Just take a regular notebook and make a fancy cover with detective clip-art.
*Classroom Journals: If your students write in journals everyday, you could call them "Detective Logs"
*Locker Tags: Make little badges for each student that say their names like "Detective Sally"
*Beginning of year activities: Make a word search of detective words and student names
*Welcome board: "It's no mystery who's in our class!" Put students names on a big list with a detective holding them or under a giant magnifying glass. You could laminate the magnifying glass with the center already cut out so it would look like glass.
*Class Library: "Investigate a Good Book Today" Put up a giant magnifying glass to feature various great books on. Let students write reviews to put on the magnifying glass each week. Some small stools painted dark with question marks all over would be cute. Add a couple of plants and you have a cozy little library area!
On Amazon.com you can buy a book called one hour mysteries that you can do with your class. IT gives the teacher step by step on helping the students to solve the mysteries provided. It is aligned with content standards. Maybe you can put the students in groups and see which group can solve the mystery first (good for teambuilding)
They also have a part two to the book.
I plan to use this theme as my Brain Binders with my older kids for Homeworkopoly (3-5th graders). I'm going to also introduce classics like Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys and Encyclopedia Brown.
Well I was lucky. My mother is very artistic and she drew the detective for me. She made black "shoe prints" as well for me to put around the room. There is not much mystery detective stuff out there so Im kinda having to be creative. Everyone has really good ideas though.
Yesterday I went to the local teachers store and got VERY lucky. I found a bulletin board set to go with this theme. It includes 2 detectives that are quite large, many smaller magnfying glasses, footprints, and then some english terriers (i think) dressed in "detective clothes". It also includes a british flag and double decker bus, but I don't think I will use those. It is made by Teacher's Friend Publications, but the lady in the store looked in the catalog to see what else they make to follow this theme, and it wasn't in there anymore, so it may be a discontinued item. If you are interested it might be a good idea to call your local teachers store. The title is Super Slueths.
There is a bulletin board set at smilemakers.com that has "detective" theme pieces. The detective tools have the 5 W questions on them. It's called "The 5 W's Bulletin Board Set" and the product number is SCH432. It costs $10.95 for the artistically/time challenged. :0)
I love the idea of the mystery teacher and the mystery bag. I am doing the same theme. I was watching the cartoon My friends tigger and Pooh with my children. The cartoon has a song which would make a great bulletin board statement or banner. "When you got a problem, think think think." I thought of making a bulletin board with this statement to go with my math wall. Also, Scholastic.com has a great bulletin board with slueth theme for $10. I hope this helps.
I am also doing a detective theme. I am completely stuck on trying to figure out what colors to do with this though. I have the plaid 'super sleuths' stuff from Scholastic. I can't decide whether to do denim/red curtains & stuff or to do everything black & white polka dots and just save the 'super sleuths' stuff for another year. Any suggestions?
I have a detective and I put "Check it out" on my wall for them to check out some good books. You can even have the students write book reviews of books they have read throughout the year and place them around your library.
07-08-2006, 12:17 PM
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