Forensic Friday!

The students came in to find that a certain someone had stolen my "Carrie Owl" AND note left by the thief on OUR classroom whiteboard stating, "I took the owl..."!!!  Ohhhhh noooo!!!  Suddenly, they had to put their inferencing skills to work!  Now, they became special detective on the Mystery Case 101: the Case of the Owl that got Carried Away!  Students were first told that my "Carrie" owl had been stolen from my desk and there was several evidence left behind...but could they link it to the thief??!?  First, we brainstormed a list of suspects based on the fact that the owl had to of been stolen on Thursday late afternoon, evening/ or early Friday morning.  There are only so many people who have access to the school after or before hours.  Therefore, we developed our suspect list based on our clues...or inferences as we call them in reading and then were given their Case Files and Reading Detective Badges.  They were now OFFICIAL reading detectives...how exciting!  

Students got into groups and read through the suspect i.d. cards and picked up on several clues that made each suspect seem "suspicious".  They were then given their interrogation report sheets complete with in-depth interview questions to get down to the "nitty gritty" as to where these suspects were at the alleged time of the crime, why they might take part, and what they might have to do with it.  There even was a crime scene complete with fingerprints, footprints, and a note left on the board!  Immediately, the students got to solving this horrible crime.  A student from each group was sent to interview a suspect and then report back to their group.  They soon got specific clues straight from the thief and delivered to Mrs. Thomas that she read and helped narrow down the culprit.  Fingerprints were also discovered that led us to a certain someone who knew who did the crime and gave us our final clue that had us using a blacklight to discover hidden evidence!  When we turned on the blacklight, glowing fingerprints and footprints were revealed.  We then knew that the guilty person would have glowing shoes and hands and were led to Mrs. Ingold!!!  She took our owl!!!  Ahhhhh!!!  It was all fun and we know that she did it because Mrs. Thomas asked her to help us in not only having fun, but making inferences and practicing reading skills along the way without even knowing it!  It really was a blast and I am glad everyone had so much fun!  I am having difficulty getting the pictures uploaded correctly so I will post them as soon as I can get that figured out.  Stay tuned!

Because of this game, we were unable to take our spelling test.  This will be done Monday so use your weekend to have some extra time to study...hopefully we will ALL get As on our test on Monday!!!  How exciting that would be!  If that happens, we might all get an extra treat!  Packets are due Monday as well.

Once our game was over, it was time to get back into routine, so we switched for math.  Our math class continued working on our test and then were able to play a few games for those of us who were finished.  It was too cold to go outside so we enjoyed recess indoors.


We were unable to go to book buddies because Mrs. Hubers's class was finishing a project.  We had some free-write/ free draw time and then had some fun vising www.jibjab.com and "elfing" some friends in class.  It was hilarious!  Try it yourself at home...we had a blast!


Hope everyone has a FANTASTIC weekend...Go out and PLAY in the SNOW!!!

I love you!
xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas


PS, Good LUCK to AbbyLou, Caroline, and Tabitha on your SCAPA auditions tomorrow!  We LOVE you all and are rooting for you!  You'll ALL be AMAZING...and remember us when you're FAMOUS!!!