Readers Theater Scary Mystery Script - GRADES 3-4 Making Inferences

This grades 3-4 Readers' Theater fun mystery script will give your students high interest practice in reading aloud, inferencing, making predictions and drawing conclusions. The Mystery of the Haunted House will entertain your students and require them to perform inference tasks to solve three major clues. The script is intended for about 9 students but the number of readers can easily be contracted or expanded depending on how many groups you wish to have. If you have a class that dislikes anything they perceive as "babyish", this amusing script with its relevant modern characters will get a thumbs-up! Question sheets and answers are included.

PLOT

This funny and engaging story revolves around the claim that a house is haunted. A boy seeking to raise money for a fashionable new pair of basketball shoes is trying to pull a scam. Only the teamwork of 10 year old twins (a sister and brother) can solve the clues to reveal the scheme. Your students will enjoy testing their wits against those of the characters! Hints for you to give students who need more help are included.

STUDENT TASKS
-- Students read aloud their assigned parts.

-- They discuss and solve the 3 mysteries in the script, using both textual evidence and (if they need them) additional hints from the extra clues page.

-- They discuss and write on six topics.
-- They complete a journal entry.
-- They design a ‘spot the difference’ drawing for a fellow student.
-- The resource ends with two pages of spooky jokes. These jokes have been separated from their punchlines. Students have to use their comprehension skills to reunite the jokes and answers.

A MORE COMPLEX SCRIPT OPTION

This script is based on a grade 5-8 resource, but it contains less slang, shorter sentences, less complex vocabulary and only three puzzles to work through, rather than the four given in the middle school version. If you have a gifted and talented group, you might wish to use this version instead: READERS THEATER MIDDLE SCHOOL SCARY MYSTERY SCRIPT

Checklist of reading comprehension strategies that readers' theater mysteries strengthen:
Inferencing
Cause and effect
Chronological sequencing
Prediction

Suspense

Point of view
Character traits

Story elements
Plot twists

This script is part of a 50% off growing bargain bundle: 50% OFF GRADES 3-4 BIG BARGAIN BUNDLE

If your students enjoyed this script, here's more Brilliantly Lit fun drama resources:
Readers Theater Brain Teaser Mystery Script GRADES 3-4
Readers Theater Aesop's Fractured Fable: The Boy who Cried Wolf GRADES 3-4
Readers' Theater Aesop's Fable Tortoise & the Hare WHOLE CLASS SCRIPT
DRAMA CIRCLE SPORTS MYSTERY

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