Has anyone ever done a mystery theme? I'm thinking about doing one that stretches the whole year....tying everything together with clues, etc.
It's a great genre that I didn't develop well last year. It's for a 3-4-5 gr. class. Any suggestions or ideas would be helpful and appreciated.
Thanks
I am planning on doing a mystery/detective theme. However, I don't have near as many ideas as I thought that I would! I think I'm going to decorate my room with black and white polka dots and then add magnifying glasses & stuff to that. I bought the Scholastic Top Secret border and other things, but I don't love it enough to keep it up all year. I think I'm going to use it mainly just for the first month or so.
I tend to spend October working on mystery because it ties so nicely with the suspense of the month. I teach grade 7 and introduce the students to words synonymous with mystery: clue, detective/sleuth, red herring, etc. and then I show the movie, "Murder, She Purred". They watch the movie and complete a sheet that has questions about the clues, motives, etc. Then, I have them choose one mystery book from a list that I provide. They create a detective's notebook. The ideas aren't mine; I actually found information on Read, Write, Think. http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson...view.asp?id=40
I will be taking over a 3-4-5 grade classroom in a different school this fall. I've taught older and younger grades, so I went to the classroom before school ended to chat with the current teacher. She had a Mystery/Western theme in her room. It was very cute! It was full of old Western pictures, and lots of "round-up riddles" were posted in the room. It almost had a ghost-town feel and the students had to be the detective/sheriff in the town. Maybe it's not what you'd, but it could be a fun theme to develop with the mystery theme!
I teach the mystery genre at the beginning of the year to my third graders. I got a lot of ideas from Beth Newingham's website. I discuss with my students how many times a detective looks at the clues to sove the crime or mystery. I use this analogy with the students all year when teaching them to read for information. It drives home the point of reading and rereading until you find the information you need in the text to answer the question. I say, "Remember to be a good detective! Keep searching for all the clues until you find them."
This year we ordered plastict fedora hats for the kids.(one class set to share among 5 classes) We are going to allow them to use the science magnifying glasses and wear the hats during reading in the mystery unit. We also bought two used trench coats so we can take their pictures dressed as detectives for a BB. Hopefully a little drama will add to their excitment about reading.
Maybe you could make a dective dummy to sit and observe in your classroom with a fedora and trench coat. The kids could name him.
Footprints or fingerprints could be a cute BB border. There are actually four basic types of thumbprints. They each have a different name. Maybe you could use that to divide the class into groups. Or you call them by different detective agency names.
A Sherlock Holmes hat and pipe would be cute to use for your theme as well. You can usually find those hats around Halloween.
Maybe everyone needs a TOP SECRET file or notebook for some reason. You could get a TOP SECRET stamp to use.
Be sure to read them The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups by David Wiseniewski. It fits your theme and kids always love the humor. He has written a sequel as well. Try some non-fiction mysteries as well. Mary Celeste: The Unsolved Mystery from History by Jane Yolen is one that comes to mind. Also The Mysteries of Harris Burdick picture book has great mysterious pictures to use as writing prompts. It is by Chris Van Allsburg. It used to be available in a big book of posters that you could use to decorate your room.
Great ideas......I appreciate the input....It's a great theme, but could easily be overdone and I don't want to turn the kids off.
Since it's third grade, I like to have the kids earn something for different accomplishments....when I had a jungle theme, they earned small pins (animals) for their safari hat (ie, mastering their math facts,).
So, I need some more time to flesh this out....and thanks a again for your help.
never thought of doing a mystery theme, however, i love the idea of the clues every month and some culminating activity in the end.
also interested in the movie murder she purred so i'll have to look into that one.
At the beginning of the school year, before school actually began, I sent home a welcome letter to all of my students. I started the letter with "Dear Future Special Agent and family, Welcome to 4th grade where you will be investigating our world by asking questions and seeking answers! You are about to enter a training force of student special agents where your mission will be to try your best in all that you do. Your term of membership lasts one year. Your hard work and dedication will add to the success of the special agent task force. Welcome and good luck!" I then went on to invite them to a "Recruitment Briefing" before school began at the "Special Agent Headquarters." I provided a cipher card where I used wingdings font and matched the symbols with the letters of the alphabet and provided them with a password that needed to be decoded before they came to see me. I also signed the letter "Special Agent 0024" (which was my badge number.)
When students came to see me on the designated day before school began they told me their password and then got to choose a locker and desk and had to pose for their special agent badge photo. I got magnifying glasses and black fidora hats from Oriental Trading Company and each child got one to pose with. They had to pose and then I provided badge name tags that were made out of construction paper with a big circle in the middle for their picture to be placed.
Students also chose special agent numbers. The numbers were used for Homeworkopoly and when they wrote letters to me at the end of each week they could sign them Special Agent and their number instead of writing their name.
On the first day of school all of the kids got their hats and magnifying glasses and went out and posed together for the Special Agent Task Force photo. I then posted it outside of my classroom for the entire year for all to see.
On the outside of my classroom I had a sign that I drew that had a detective following footprints with a magnifying glass and it had on it "Special Agent Headquarters" and "Hot on the trail of learning."
I used the MOOSE notebooks but called mine C.S.I. Binder which was short for Curious Students Investigating 4th grade.
I also utilized Mrs. Renz's Mastery Club but called mine the Special Agent Challenge. If they earned 10 or more stars they became a part of the permament Special Agent Hall of Fame.
This year I may incorporate the GEMS fingerprint lessons into my first few weeks or in the middle of the year to add some flavor. I am moving to a new school this year and they have a school-wide theme of "Red, White, and Blue" so I am incorporating that with my special agent theme. I went to a scrapbooking store today and found some cute stickers of stick figure kids that are holding flags and have the red, white and blue colors. I was thinking about blowing them up on an opaque projector and drawing them on butcher paper and using them for some decorations around the room and then adding some fidora hats and magnifying glasses and badges to some to tie in both themes.
I would like to come up with a cute idea for my reading area. I like the idea having a stuffed dummy dressed as a special agent, that may work. Well, hopefully this gave you some ideas. I would love to hear any other ideas anybody else may have.
Have you ever thought about doing and Eyewitness jar? The students could place in the jar a sentence that explains how they observed a classmate showing good character, being respectful, being a good friend, etc. They could write a sentence, such as "I witnessed _______ showing good character by _______."
I teach fourth grade and I've done a mystery theme and it always lasted all year. I place the students into cooperative groups of four (Detectives, Witnesses, Policemen, Inspectors). They design a logo for the group and I display it on a bulletin board, which accompanies my cooperative group behavior plan. I cut up each letter of the word cooperate and if groups are working together I add points to the group, if they are not cooperating I take a letter(s) away. Each letter is worth 10 points. I tally points at the end of each week.
We read the mystery book The Westing Game (the kids absolutely love this book) and finish the year with studying a mystery unit, which includes writing a mystery.
My math mystery bulletin board read "Super Sleuths" and all year we talked about solving the mystery of word problems.
06-30-2008, 08:52 AM
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