Writing: Mysteries
These sites are about the genre of mysteries. Includes activities for writing mystery stories and samples of stories written by students. In addition are several interactive activities such as Mystery Cube which allows students to research and respond to prompts to create a story. There is a link to an eThemes Resource on mystery books.
Grades
- 3,
- 4,
- 5,
- 6
Links
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ThinkQuest: Millennium Mystery Madness
This award-winning site provides writing tips, mysteries to solve, and tips for developing mystery stories.
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Mystery Writing Lesson Plans
This site provides complete writing lesson plans for mystery writing. Included are lessons in pre-writing, brainstorming, prompts, and mystery vocabulary. Use this activity with students and then submit their work to writing contests.
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ReadWriteThink: Mystery Cube
Use this interactive to assist students in sorting clues and developing an outline for a mystery story. Specific prompts enable students to plan a story using mystery elements such as setting, clues, crime or mystery, victim, detective, and solution.
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"Unexplained Mysteries!"
Use this structured activity with students to research an unsolved mystery. Supporting files include a complete lesson plan and additional document to assist students in research and writing.
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"Unsolved Mysteries: A Webquest"
This activity guides students through the process of writing a mystery. Students select an unsolved mystery to research and write a paper to explain the facts and present a theory from their research.
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ReadWriteThink: What's in a Mystery? Exploring and Identifying Mystery Elements
This lesson plan aims to teach about elements of mystery such as plot structure, characters, and setting. Includes a list of mystery picture books, mystery words, and a graphic organizer.
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Mystery Bookmark
Print a one-page pdf and create your own mystery bookmark.
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Access Excellence Mystery Spot
This site has a collection of interactive science-based mysteries. The links at the right under "Teacher-Developed Mysteries" includes science lesson plans. Note: This site includes ads.
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Scholastic: Genre Charts
This four-page PDF file has a series of descriptions of various literary genres including mystery, tall tales, and satires. Each page gives a basic definition of the genre, clues to determining if a book fits a particular genre, and what the genre requires of its audience.
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MysteryNet's Kids Mysteries
This MysteryNet site has mystery stories, magic tricks, scary stories and solve-it-yourself puzzles. The site is a part of the Kids Love A Mystery literacy program sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America. NOTE: The "Community" link includes discussion boards. NOTE: The site includes ads.
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Scholastic: Mystery Writing with Joan Lowry Nixon
Author Joan Lowry Nixon takes you through the steps involved in writing a mystery.
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Round-Robin Suspense
This lesson plan has students write mystery stories from story starters in cooperative groups.
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FFFBI Missions
Take a role of FBI agent and solve mysterious cases. Includes clues and games.
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eThemes Resource: Literature: Mystery Books
Read all about different mystery books and their authors. Books include "Who Stole the Wizard of Oz," "Encyclopedia Brown," the "Cam Jensen Mystery" series, "The Hardy Boys," "Nancy Drew," and "Bunniculla." Includes classroom activity ideas and some interactive quizzes.
Education Standards
