Elements of a Mystery

Today we started our unit on Mysteries.  I created a fun interactive notebook page to introduce the elements of a mystery to my students.  To start the lesson, we talked about what they already know about mysteries and what other mystery books they have already read.

I showed them the interactive notebook and they were so excited to get started cutting and learning about the parts of a mystery.  Check out how cute and informative our interactive notebook entry was!

After the students read and we reviewed the elements of mystery using the interactive journal we continued on  with some more mystery vocabulary highlighted on the anchor chart.  The children had a great time with the words Sleuth and Red Herring.  

Finally, I introduced the book Swindle by Gordon Korman as our mystery.  This book is a great hook for reluctant readers.  Most of my class, especially the boys, was hooked after a few pages! They are super excited to read more tomorrow! 

Update: So many of you have reached out looking for the "Elements of a Mystery Interactive Notebook", I have made them available here or by click on the picture below. 

What is your favorite mystery to share with your students?