Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Who Dun It? - Murder Mystery Activity


Update! This is available on my Teachers Pay Teachees website. Please check it out! 

It has been a while since I wrote and for that, I apologize. It has been a crazy school year considering school started on August 1st. Yes, you read that correct, August 1st! As Thanksgiving break is nearing, I cannot imagine how ready the students are as I feel I need a little break as well. So how did I spend my day off today? Writing lesson plans and making items for my classroom of course. I enjoy it when I don't feel like I am on a time crunch. When I can just sit back, listen to music, and work, I truly enjoy it. I made a DBQ on the Blitzkrieg for my students today. However, that'll be a post for another day.

Today, I am going to share with you the Who Dun It? Mystery. After talking to a colleague, she sparked my interest by explaining that she set up Archduke Ferdinand's murder as a mystery for students to solve. I continued to brainstorm ideas of how to make this work in my classroom and when I pulled it off, the kids loved it!

The set-up:




The first thing I did, was scour the internet for primary sources to use as clues. I did not want students to just see a crime scene. I wanted them to investigate using the skills I have been teaching them this year. I wanted students to be able to analyze and make observations and inferences as to what happened and to whom it happened.


Once I found a variety of clues including newspaper clippings, eye witness accounts, photos, and even a mugshot. I cut them out and glued them onto construction paper. I laminated them but quickly realized a laminator and construction paper do not mix very well. My clues did not stay laminated and all day I had to endure hearing "Mrs. Johnson, this is falling apart." I digress. Next year, I am gluing them on cardstock and laminating. Oh well, you live and you learn.


Of course no clue is legit without a classified envelope or folder!


Then, I begged and borrowed enough clipboards so each group could have an official clipboard when they began their activity.

I made a worksheet, "Who Dun It" Murder Mystery, for students to complete. Of course, I had to endure this all day, "Mrs. Johnson, you spelled 'done' wrong." I had to then explain to them what this meant and that I had not spelled it incorrectly. Kids can be so literal sometimes ;)

Within their groups, students went from station to stay and opened the envelopes. I had 6 groups so I had 6 stations set up with clues inside the envelopes. It was so great to hear the conversations students were having and I knew they were truly engaged and having a blast. To this day, 3 months later, students can still tell you everything about the murder of Archduke Francis Ferdinand. Isn't having fun and learning what it really is about, in the end?

My amazing partner, the language arts teacher, paired up with me to make a culminating activity in which students had to write a news report about the murder based on the clues they had pieced together in my class.

This was probably one of the most fun days I have ever had teaching. While yes, it did take a few hours for me to get everything together, I had so much fun doing it. Now, other than having to relaminate, I have a great activity I can continue to use and tweak each year.

The clues and worksheet will be available on my Teachers Pay Teachers website at a later date.

2 comments:

  1. Do you have this available yet?

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    1. Hey!! Yes, I have it up on my teachers pay teachers website 😊

      https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Crafty-Middle-School-Teacher

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