A compilation of the best ideas I've seen for an awesome detective classroom theme.
Elementary teachers planning a mystery classroom theme will love these decor ideas, inspiring photos, bulletin board tips, and resources.
I've been missing from blog world. Still working on making this a part of my routine. Our school theme this year was "We Walk by Fait...
When I first learned about this idea of "classroom transformations," I was weary. They seemed expensive, complicated, and prep-intensive... ...
Elementary teachers planning a mystery classroom theme will love these decor ideas, inspiring photos, bulletin board tips, and resources.
This Detective Classroom Transformation is great for students to practice math skills while spending the day as a detective.
Welcome Super Sleuths! If you love classroom transformations and engaging students while they are learning, you have just cracked the case wide open!
This Mystery/Detective theme pack includes everything you need to turn your classroom into a fun, engaging learning environment! This pack includes over 40 items (that's less than 50 cents per resource!), listed below. It also includes an interactive table of contents to help you navigate the over 2...
Total Pages: 17 File Size: 9 MB PREVIEW
Elementary teachers planning a mystery classroom theme will love these decor ideas, inspiring photos, bulletin board tips, and resources.
This Detective Classroom Transformation is great for students to practice math skills while spending the day as a detective.
A detective themed classroom is all about using observation and deduction for finding out answers. Students will value the importance of asking questions and
Ideas & example of ESL murder mystery activity for class. Contains the Mystery at Mr. Grim's Mansion. Great activity for speaking. Junior High English level
A compilation of the best ideas I've seen for an awesome detective classroom theme.
This Detective Classroom Transformation is great for students to practice math skills while spending the day as a detective.
Fun and Engaging Class Activity! You can use this activity as an introduction to a bigger mystery-themed unit, but this also works well as a stand alone lesson! In this lesson, students will: create their own detective ID cards identify their detective skills and abilities present their own agency name and logo This resource includes: detective ID templates personality test answer sheet thorough PowerPoint presentation male & female versions of a mysterious voice over Students will surely feel like they are being recruited by the FBI or CIA!
Welcome Super Sleuths! If you love classroom transformations and engaging students while they are learning, you have just cracked the case wide open!
A compilation of the best ideas I've seen for an awesome detective classroom theme.
So, I posted recently that my sixth graders were writing a mystery that was going to take place in the library. I took two of the best mysteries that were submitted and combined them! Here's how our mystery looked: The Problem: Mrs. Svarda got to school on Monday morning and saw the mess. At first she was just mad that all of the books were out, then she saw that all the books were missing their endings. She picked up a book and noticed that the barcode was missing, too. She looked around and found that several books were missing their endings and barcodes. The scanners were also missing so no one could check out books! Then Mrs. Svarda was scared and mad. Who could've done such a thing? What happened here? How could this happen? She needed help. Starbelly Sneetch Alibi: It was 5:00 and I heard a knock on my door. It was Fox in Socks. He came in and I turned off my music and put away my IPod. We played at my house until we got bored. We decided it would be fun to go to the movies. We texted Hop On Pop and Yertle the Turtle to see if they wanted to come, too. Everyone came to the movie except Hop on Pop. After the movie we couldn't think of what to do so we walked around. We thought we might stop by the library to visit Hop On Pop. It started to rain as we walked so we stopped at Fox in Sock's house to pick up some blankets to keep dry on our walk. Hop On Pop Alibi: It was 5:00 and I was looking at my clock when the doorbell rang. It was Yertle the Turtle. He had brought me some homemade bread. He asked if I wanted to go to the mall. My mom said, "No. I had to work on my homework at the library." Yertle the Turtle got a text right after that asking if we wanted to go and see the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie. Bummer. I really wanted to see a movie and hated that I had to go to the library instead. Yertle the Turtle left to meet everyone for the movie. I headed to the library with my homework. My animal report was due on Monday and mom said I couldn't do anything fun until I was finished with the report. The fun thing was that everyone came by the library after the movie and told me all about it. They had a great time. At 8:00, everyone had to head home. I had about thirty minutes left of homework, so I told them I'd have to stay around just a bit longer... Yertle the Turtle Alibi: It was 4:00 and I was cooking some homemade bread. When it was done I wanted to have some fun so I took some bread over to my friend Hop On Pop. I asked if he wanted to go to the mall, but then I got a text from Fox in Socks and Starbelly Sneetch asking if I wanted to go to the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie. My mom said I could go to the movie, but his mom said he had to do homework. He tried not to show it, but boy, was he mad. I had to leave Hop On Pop to make it to the movie on time. I told him if we had time, we'd stop by the library after the movie to hang out with him. Fox in Socks' Alibi: I was sitting in my room when my mom came in and said when I finished my chores I could play. I decided to go over to Starbelly Sneetch's house to play. We thought it would be fun to go to see a movie and texted our friends to see if they could come, too. When the movie was over we went by my house to get some blankets because it was raining and we didn't want to get wet. Then, we headed to the library to visit Hop On Pop because he was doing homework there. At the library, I looked for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book. I really liked the movie so I thought I would like the book. What the students do: When the students entered the library, they each grabbed a clipboard with a pencil, ingredients of a mystery checklist, alibis, map of the crime scene, and suspect list attached to it. They also grabbed a highlighter. I had the problem and alibis typed up on my SMART board including pictures of the characters. I read the problem and each alibi to the students. We walked through the ingredients of a mystery and checked off all of the mystery elements that our mystery had on the list. Then, I separated the students into two groups. One team surveyed the crime scene and drew the map of the evidence in the crime scene first. The second team worked in teams to read through the alibis and highlight evidence they found in the text that made them believe a character or characters might be guilty. After ten minutes, the teams swapped stations. We returned together as a group to discuss all of the evidence the students had found in the crime scene as well as the alibis that led them to believe that specific characters could be guilty of the crime. We completed the suspect list together. Students work in teams to highlight evidence in the alibis. Students sketched the crime scene. We taped off the crime scene with caution tape. The crime scene included Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, barcodes with fur on them (from characters), endings ripped out of the end of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books (these were really just copies I ripped), a blanket, movie ticketes (3), and a book about bumblebees (this was the book Hop On Pop was using to do his research for homework). I found the copies for the ingredients of a mystery checklist and suspect list from Beth Newingham's Scholastic post about the mystery unit she teaches in her classroom. The Solution The students really thought like detectives in this lesson! I did catch a few of them off guard with my red herrings, though. The fuzz on the barcodes made some of them immediately suspect Fox in Socks and the Starbelly Sneetch. One of the kids said, "This is the best lesson we've had in the library all year!" So, you can make whoever you want responsible for the crime. I decided that Hop On Pop was guilty. He was mad that he did not get to go to the movie with his friends. He was working on his report about bumblebees (since bears love honey) and had to stay later than his friends in the library to finish up. All of the other characters visited the library to visit Hop On Pop and they did not say anything about something being wrong in the library. Hop On Pop tore the endings out of the books when his friends left. To excite the kids about checking out mysteries in our library, we created a mystery display. All of the books were sealed in brown paper bags with the barcodes on the outside so we could check the books out without opening the bags. Each bag had a different mystery inside. This was a fun way for our students to try reading something new in the library and practice their detective skills we learned in our lesson together! Mystery books in mystery bags!
This reading unit of study focuses on reading mysteries in the classroom. Includes mini-lessons, anchor charts, graphic organizers & more. FREE
This Detective Classroom Transformation is great for students to practice math skills while spending the day as a detective.
This Detective Classroom Transformation is great for students to practice math skills while spending the day as a detective.
Welcome your students back to school with a mystery themed unit. Students will get to know each other, the teacher, and mystery guests with these fun activities. The unit includes: Guess Who (student activity), Classified Information (get to know the teacher), Mystery Guest (get to know new staff/teachers), Who Done It? (writing project), I Have, Who Has? (basic math skills game). If you would like to "Follow Me," you will receive notifications on the TpT homepage when I have posted a new product. Find the green star next to my picture to become my newest follower. Also, don't forget to provide feedback. TpT credits are earned and may be used on future purchases.
I was asked to decorate this classroom for an Elder that is teaching the class of middle school students. You can find the material here. The teachers and students are really enjoying the study! This post is just ideas for decorating a Bible class with any FBI or Investigators theme. You can click here to purchase the material with more ideas and posters. I kept the door simple. I had cut the paper to totally cover the door, but as I began to put it together, I figured with kids, I would just be fighting to keep the background up for a year. So, I cut it down and used this. I have Duct Tape I use for my IFA classroom and used it at the top and bottom to secure the paper. (Although, I just used rolled up masking tape to attach it to the door.) Click here to download some of the misc. posters I created. For the FBI Watch List, I originally used this idea in my IFA Acts study class. I put two poster boards together and used the Duct Tape around the outside edges to make a border. You can find decorative Duct tape just about anywhere to use. This is the first quarter and will be the few things I will change each quarter. You can download (Genesis) the first quarter here. This includes the title and shield. I used rubber cement to attach the wanted people. This glue will allow me to peel them off each quarter and attach the new people. The second quarter begins with Moses. You can download the 2nd quarter wanted set here. A Creation poster comes with the visuals, which you can see below. So, I removed it for the study about Moses and added this 10 Commandments Poster. Click here to download it. The sets for the third and fourth quarter will be added as they are created for the class. I found these decorations for this wall here. I love it! A whole wall was complete once we cut it and stapled it! This room is supposed to look more like an office, than say, a room decorated for VBS. This was the only request for the room! This is on the main wall that students see when they enter the room. I left the bulletin board as a cork board since it looks more like an office. I made a large banner to go above the bulletin board with the title and color decorative masking tape for the sides. We ran out of room for all the student posters, so I stapled the teacher's poster and the decorative poster on the wall along the side of the bulletin board. You can find the yellow tape here that is along the bottom. Beside the above bulletin board, is this map that will be changed each quarter and the posters that you can purchase with the material. Click here to download some of the posters I used (including the earth symbol above). The evidence boxes are an idea I found on Pinterest. These are stacked at the end of the wall with the computer monitors. I also found the Investigator shadow here. I just enlarged that onto black bulletin board paper and added the yellow paper for the light beam. The white board is on the right of this. On the other side of the white board is this Bible investigation area. There is a Bible timeline that I placed in the corner at about eye level. There are some posters that comes with the FBI box. I also added some posters that will cover each quarter. Click here for the posters. The bookshelf holds class and office supplies. The Bibles are also here... right next to the Bible investigation corner. I found this Height Chart idea and since the item is not for sale any longer, I made one. This is right next to the door, where you typically see them. This was also used for the student's Most Wanted Posters. I just used white bulletin board paper and a ruler, but I used my Cricut machine to cut the numbers. The last photo is the general look of the room. You can see the tables lined up with cubicles attached to them to look like an office. This idea is in the FBI manual, and you can purchase it here to see more. You can find more ideas and printables here. There are posters and bulletin board printables and ideas here. You can find more investigation ideas on my Pinterest board here.
This free printable set of coordinate graphing mystery pictures with spring themes is perfect math + art fun for your students.
I and the children LOVE these AMAZING trash liner jellyfish. So simple, and yet such an amazing addition to our OCEAN/SEA theme. I have added a Youtube tutorial at the bottom. To make these I used two 10 gallon commercial trashcan liners, the ones for small office trash cans, at a cost of about 5 cents and about 10 minutes of time each. #1 The first liner is opened up, four "corners" [just grab the edge about every 1/4 around] brought together and stapled, then stuffed down into the center of the bag to create a bowl shape. #2 For the second liner, cut off the sealed edge. It is accordion folded in fourths. Unfold completely and fold over once to create a square, giving you four layers of plastic. Cut off the edges and cut into spiral. I did about a 1 - 1 1/4 inch thickness. The wider the strip the shorter the "tentacles." I didn't try to be that accurate or to make a perfect circle. I knew once they were opened out that it wouldn't matter. You end up with a pretty long strip. I folded it in half and cut it to create two strips of equal length. Since it's actually doubled over double layers, this gives you 8 tentacles total. Spread them all apart. \ If you try to attach them without separating them first, they will cling to one another and not fall properly to create the tentacle effect. Once separated, join them all together, placing them randomly together in a circle and stapling together. Since you have two sets of four of the same cut, this is important that they not sit perfectly together or it won't look right. Stick the tentacle staple up against the inside of the bowl shaped bag and push up with your hand. Collect all layers on the top, along with a string to hang if wanted, and staple. You can't see the staple on the ones I have up. The plastic folds over and hides it. The layers are: TENTACLES TOP OF BAG gathered together and folded over [pic below] BOTTOM CENTER OF BAG STRING FOR HANGING All are stapled through at once. I can now make them with just one stable through the whole thing, but it is easier to staple the tentacles first, then the top of the bag, then the combined pieces. These are WONDERFUL!! I'm so glad I came across the idea. I think my process is MUCH easier than the original instructions, which used clear rubber bands. This is an original idea of Casa Haus English that her daughter created for a school assignment. She placed her jellyfish creation on a stick and used it as a movable puppet. Our jellyfish did the same, which is really cool, but with 2 and 3-year-olds, playing with plastic bags just doesn't work. So, ours are hung from the ceiling. TUTORIAL I have received several emails about the bringing the "corners" together step, so have created the following tutorial. A couple of things to note is that for this one I used smaller liners than the ones in this post, and I folded the first liner in quarters rather than opening it out and folding it in half, so the tentacles came out shorter. Only the last staple is necessary. If you are making a lot of these, you'll probably get to the point where you can just hold it all together and only use the one staple. Tags: ocean, sea, theme, unit, preschool, kindergarten, child, care, childcare, daycare, beach, jellyfish, animals, craft, art, decoration, puppet, plastic, bag, trash, can, liner
My favorite activity to get parents involved in our classroom is to have them be a mystery reader. Here's how my mystery reader program works: I send out an email to all parents asking them to volunteer to be a mystery reader. I tell them that they need to be available on Friday afternoon (use whatever day and time works for you.), that they can bring their own book or I will provide one, but it has to take less than 10 minutes to read, and they need to send me an email with 5 clues about themselves. After hearing back from a few parents I scheduled one mystery reader a week. In some schools I have been lucky enough to have one parent a week the entire year....in others I only had a handful of readers. No matter what kind of involvement you get, use the parents, they are amazing! Many parents will ask what types of clues you need. Here are some ideas: What is your hair color? Where is your favorite place to vacation? Do you have a favorite food? How many children do you have? Where do you work? What are your hobbies? Then, the fun begins. Every day each week I leave a clue. I always leave the older clues written up on the board for the students to go back and review. I simply help the students read the clue aloud in morning meeting and leave it at that. Then on Friday we all take a minute and guess who the reader is. I then invite the reader in and have the student in the class who the parent is related to introduce the reader. It takes a short amount of time: the parent reads the book and then I let the students ask the parent a few questions. But, these few minutes make all the difference. The child whose parent came feels so lucky, the other students anxiously look forward to the reader and hope they have guessed right. And in the end it introduces children to new books and new readers. I have had a variety of books from silly stories to stories about babies all around the world. Remember to always have some stories on hand in case the parent didn't bring one! I hope you can take this simple idea of a mystery reader and roll with it. I'd love to hear how it goes! You can find a packet of clue cards and summary sheets at my teachers pay teachers store here if you wish. Happy Teaching!
Choosing a variety of songs to play in the classroom may be a great way to set the mood in the classroom and establish a learning environment.
This Detective Classroom Transformation is great for students to practice math skills while spending the day as a detective.
Here are posters I've used in my classroom: - Detective Academy logo (2 versions) - Super Sleuth (achievement) - I Spy (good behavior) - Counting Clues (math) - Quiet Please (on door) - Today's Passwords (new vocabulary) New Recruits I've included a 4-up pdf of "snapshots" of new detective students using the boy and girl clip art and printed out their names on address labels. You can laminate the snapshots and re-use them every year by updating new address labels. Welcome banner The Welcome, Detectives banner spans 2 pages and you can use different colored paper as background. My example image shows it only in white, but I've used yellow and it looks great with my board! Logos I've also included 8 pages of larger sized logos. Both logos are made large enough to extend to 4 pages each, overlapping to create a big black and white poster.
Teaching inferencing in third grade with an engaging crime scene activity! Students were thrilled when we transformed our classroom into 4 not-so-scary crime scenes to learn reading skills and make inferences.
For our 2015 Activity Day theme, we decided to do a Mission Possible theme. We were inspired by Pinterest with a lot of our ideas. The mis...
Learn about community helpers through play! See how firefighters, police officers, doctors, dentists, and mail carriers help us every day.
Here is our "Top 5 List!" Are ya ready? We will be working our way backwards to the number one way to be that "favorite teacher."
