BRAIN TEASER MYSTERY STORIES GRADES 5-8#2 + Mystery writing assignment

Item description

These 15 mini-mysteries are fun, high-interest brain teasers for grades 5-8. They challenge students to read closely for text evidence, and to make inferences and draw conclusions. They shine as exit tickets, warm ups, bell ringers or even for morning meetings. They can also be incorporated into a Middle School mystery unit. The resource contains several pages of advice for students on how to write a mystery of their own, including a checklist graphic organizer. For students who are stumped for writing ideas there is a list of possible mystery solutions; they have to write the story that leads to the solution. This is volume 2 of a brainteasers story collection.

When reading the tales as a whole class, the most obvious methods of using these 15 mysteries are to read each one out loud or to show them on your screen. The students then guess the solutions. They can also be read in small literacy groups. If you want the students to work a bit harder, they could record and explain their guesses on the included worksheet, and write their own story, using the guidelines. The solutions are on a different page from the story and its question, so that students cannot see them accidentally; that would really spoil the fun! A few stories are ‘one offs,’ but some characters like Mr Noah Lot and his ever lively after school club, and Swindler Sweeney, have several tales. There are 3 detection activities- riddles separated from their answers, a word code exercise and a Find the 10 Differences activity for added fun.

Included in the resource:

15 vividly illustrated stories.

An optional tips page, explaining the most common mystery/ riddle clue types.

Two optional working pages, so students can write down their guesses, and keep a tally of how many mysteries they got right.

3 fun detection activities with answers.
5 pages of mystery writing advice.

A simple teacher rubric to mark the students’ own mini-mysteries.

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