Make a Mystery Puzzle
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Activity Description
No reading list is complete without a good mystery. Even the least enthusiastic readers can get caught up in following their favorite sleuths from caper to caper. This activity, which can be used with a book club, has children and teens explore this popular type of writing in more detail by making a puzzle. It also encourages them to invent and write their own mysteries. It's elementary, Watson—mysteries are fun!
Why This Is Helpful
Understanding how stories work is part of becoming a strong reader and writer. Mysteries are the perfect genre to increase this understanding because they tend to be set up in the same ways. Similar parts include the crime or mystery, the detective, sleuth, or investigator, the clues, and finally, the solution. This activity asks children to identify these parts in a mystery they have read and make a puzzle. By listing the parts, they will see how mysteries are set up and can then try writing their own.
This activity was modified from the ReadWriteThink lesson plan “Everyone Loves a Mystery: A Genre Study."
Here's What to Do
Before beginning this activity, have the child you are working with choose and read a mystery story. For suggestions on age-appropriate mystery stories, check with your local librarian. The Scary Stories Booklist also provides some possible titles. Have the child list the book on the Reading Record chart.
Print a copy of the Mystery Puzzle Instruction Sheet, the Mystery Cube Planning Sheet, and the Mystery Elements sheet, which lists the different elements and the structure of a mystery.
Making a Mystery Puzzle
| 1. | Have the child talk about the mystery book and why he or she liked it, without revealing the solution to you. |
| 2. |
Ask the child what some of the parts of a mystery are. Work together to make a list that includes the following:
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| 3. | Ask the child to fill in the Mystery Cube Planning Sheet using the mystery he or she has read. (Don’t look at the solution.) |
| 4. | While the child is working, take a large piece of poster board and draw seven puzzle pieces on it. Number the pieces from 1 to 7. |
| 5. | Using the Mystery Puzzle Instruction Sheet, ask the child to fill in the things he or she just wrote on the planning sheet on the puzzle pieces. The child can also draw pictures that illustrate the things he or she is writing. (The pictures can overlap the pieces so that when the puzzle is cut up, the pictures are too.) Have the child write the solution on the back of the piece of poster board and draw a picture there as well—no peeking! |
| 6. | Cut the pieces out, and ask the child to mix them up, making sure while doing so that the solution side is down. Put the puzzle together. When it is complete, see if you can guess what the solution is. Flip the puzzle over to see if you are right. |
Writing a Mystery Story (You can complete this part of the activity at a different time.)
| 7. | Visit the online Mystery Cube tool together and use it to help the child plan a mystery story. Use characters and the setting from the mystery story read or make them up. Once all of the sides are filled in, print the sheet and cut and fold to form a cube (see sample). |
| 8. | Have the child use the information to write a mystery story. Before writing, try exploring Mystery Writing With Joan Lowery Nixon together for tips and strategies for writing a suspenseful mystery. |
| 9. | The child can read the mystery story he or she wrote to you, pausing before the end to see if you can guess the solution. |
Visit the Mystery Cube page for more information about this tool.
More Ideas to Try
Have a mystery meeting of the child’s book club. Each child in the group can read a different mystery story, make a Mystery Puzzle, and write his or her own mystery. At the meeting, they can trade puzzles and stories.
What You Need
- Computer with Internet access and printer
- Scary Stories Booklist
- Mystery Puzzle Instruction Sheet
- Mystery Elements sheet
- Piece of poster board
- Scissors, paper, pencils, and art supplies
- Online Mystery Cube tool, planning sheet, and sample
- Mystery Writing With Joan Lowry Nixon
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