Homeschoolers at the Library
Friday, December 13, 2013 @ 1 PM
It’s a Mystery
What We Did This Month

This month, we explored mysteries! First, we started by solving a short mystery from the book Whose
Equipment is This? by Amanda Doering Tourville. This book gave us clues about a community helper
and we guessed who he or she was.

We explored one mysterious profession, forensic science, through select pages of Forensic Science by
Chris Cooper. This gave us an idea of what scientists, investigators, and detectives do and how they
solve mysteries every day.

We also read a story out of Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty? And Other Notorious Nursery Tale Mysteries
by David Levinthal.

Then we played a Mystery Memory Game found at http://www.simplefunkidparties.com/clueparty.html.
Everyone was given the chance to memorize an assortment of object on a tray and then had to write
down what they remembered. This demonstrates the skills detectives use when collecting clues.

The library has several mystery fiction series available for checkout. Many of these were briefly
mentioned and the opportunity to check them out was presented.

Our next activity was Mystery in a Bag, found at http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/03/lp29902.shtml. Each student was given a bag with several objects in it and asked to write a description of
what might have happened using their objects and a mystery solving sheet. This activity incorporated
creative writing and language arts.

Finally, our craft was writing secret messages! This idea comes from
http://www.minieco.co.uk/message-in-bottle/.
Books Used in This Program
 Forensic Science by Chris Cooper
 Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty? And Other Notorious Nursery Tale Mysteries by David Levinthal
 Whose Equipment is This? by Amanda Doering Tourville
Additional resources to use at home:

Two other invisible ink crafts can be found at http://www.education.com/activity/article/magic-artwrite-magic-messages/ and
http://www.firstpalette.com/Craft_themes/Colors/Crayon_Resist_Lines/Crayon_Resist_Lines.html

Here is a link for a printable disguise kit: http://www.designhousedigital.com/content/blog/happy-aprilfools-day/

Mystery Message Maker: http://www.crayola.com/crafts/mystery-message-maker-craft/
If you are looking for some books to take home, find them under the following call numbers:
j363.2 – Detectives, police officers, and crime solving
Juvenile Paperback Mysteries