Mystery Writing Projects: 3 Fun Prompts & Activities for 3rd, 4th, or 5th Grade
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Read, write, and think like a detective! Bulk up your mystery genre study with inference activities, short stories, writing projects, secret codes, observation, logic puzzles, fingerprinting, and invisible ink! This unit is guaranteed to engage your third, fourth, or fifth grade students.Open the prPrice $28.80Original Price $36.00Save $7.20
Five weeks of detective-themed ELA activities engage fourth and fifth grade students. The unit includes mystery reading, critical thinking, and writing projects; two novel studies; a simulation; posters and book report templates. A complete 25-day schedule guides instruction. Open the previews to taPrice $49.60Original Price $62.00Save $12.40
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Looking for a fun mystery writing project? Choose from three prompts: puzzle pictures, paper bag story starters, or mapped detective stories. Your third, fourth, or fifth grade students will love these activities!
Three fun projects are sequenced from simplest to most complex. If you want shorter bursts of writing, create pictures or use paper bag story starters. To work on narrative development, try the mapped mystery. For differentiation, you can assign activities based on readiness. (Or, if you’re like me, have all students do all three!)
Puzzle Pictures Project - This little activity is really a craft. It makes a great classroom display and only requires a little writing. Kids print or cut pictures of well-known objects, animals, or people. Then they write clues beneath the picture. They cut a small hole in a piece of construction paper and staple the it on top of the picture. Classmates study a small piece of the picture through the hole, read the clues, and solve the mystery what it is. Then they lift the construction paper to see if they’re right.
Paper Bag Story Starters - To prepare for this project, cut and fold three sets of cards: character, setting, and situation. Place each set in a labeled paper bag. Students pick one card from each bag, then develop a story around them.
Mapped Detective Story - Kids use the writing process to develop their own plots. First, they analyze a reading passage, “The Case of the Missing Cookies” (included). Second, they learn how to write mystery stories. Finally, they organize, develop, and write their own whodunits with these steps:
- Choose a problem/crime.
- Explore setting.
- Develop characters - including suspects with motive and opportunity.
- Map the plot with at least three clues and one red herring.
- Experiment with beginnings and endings; choose a pair.
- Draft the narrative.
- Edit with a peer.
- Publish stories.
Looking for more? Check out the mystery bundle! It also includes mystery writing passages and detective activities.
Enjoy teaching!
Brenda Kovich
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