mysteries unit

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Archive : 2005 : March : 15

mysteries unit
By Minasmom

I teach a unit on mysteries too, and I use three series for my various reading leveled groups. I can't say enough about the Meg Mackintosh series for my grade-level readers, especially the Mystery of the Locked Library.
The illustrations have clues right in them for the readers to spot, and this title also has a written secret code that the children play with themselves after reading. Furthermore, the Meg Mackintosh series stops and asks the readers comprehension and reasoning questions periodically throughout the stories, so there are your written response or discussion prompts. Very enjoyable for them!

For more struggling readers I'll use the Nate the Great series, and for faster readers I use the Boxcar Children series. I always begin this unit with a discussion/brainstorm of what a mystery is and discuss related words like "clue" and "sleuth," etc. During snack time or read aloud I read from those 5-minute mystery books, which are short and fun to solve as a class. They can be challenging, but the discussions get passionate and are wonderful to see. We might also have a week of genre-related spelling words to tie in. We end by trying to write a short mystery together as a class during writing time. Mysteries provide so many discussion and reasoning opportunities, and if you show how exciting and fun they are, the children will just pick it up from you and take off. I love this unit. Good luck!