Burke’s Third Graders Solve the Case!
Over the past two months, third graders did a deep dive into the mystery genre.
The students learned that strong mystery readers try to solve the mystery alongside the detectives by collecting clues! The clues were documented in detective notebooks and the students developed theories about each suspect's motive and opportunity. Being careful to not let red herrings throw them off track, the third graders looked for patterns and made predictions. For example, the first suspect a detective meets is usually not the person who committed the crime! (That would be too obvious, right?) At the end of the unit, the students held a “Mystery Book Celebration” to share their learning with second grade. Each third grader and her partner chose one strategy to teach second graders how to become strong mystery readers and learn about this fun genre. Click here for photos of the celebration!