School-Age: Detectives

This week we talked about detectives and solving mysteries! 

Earlier this spring I had an thought about how neat it would be if we played a life-size detective game. I envisioned a program that was like playing clue or one of those dinner murder mystery games. 

I could not find anything exactly like what I was envisioning online so I made up my own game, peppering it with simple terms like 'evidence' or 'alibi' to give the kids an overview of crime-solving terminology.

1. Reading
We read the book "Who Done It?" by Olivier Tallec. It was a bit of a seek-and-find book where the kids had to figure out which character was the one that 'did it', whether is was the character(s) that didn't get enough sleep or the character who is in love. I had printed blown up pictures of the answers to show them in detail, which was great for larger audiences. 

2. Activity
We played a 'Who Done It?' mystery. It was my life-size version of clue! The mystery we solved was 'Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?' 

Thus began the literary kids version of clue...

A. The Usual Suspects 
We started with a list of suspects. I wanted to use familiar characters from books they may have read. Our suspects were: Fancy Nancy, Curious George, Waldo, Pete the Cat, Clifford, Amelia Bedelia, Madeline, Cat in the Hat, and the Pigeon.

B. Evidence: Tire Tracks

We talked about what 'evidence' is and then used the first piece of evidence to eliminate some of the suspects. For the first program of the week I had laid out all the pieces of evidence on/near a table where the cookies (our library happens to have a prop jar of cookies!) are knocked over. 

For the program today I changed the set-up slightly and had two longer tables where I put the evidence in order for us to go through as a group. There were 3 times as many kids at our Friday morning program as there were on Tuesday so I need to have it more manageable. 

The first piece of evidence was the tire tracks. They compared them to the tire treads on three different types of cars: a truck, a convertible, and a van. Then I had a list of what each suspect drove.

Tire Track Evidence:

Tire Treads for Various Cars:

Suspect's Cars:

For this piece of evidence, the van matches the tire track found at the scene of the crime SO our suspects have been narrowed down to: Pigeon, Madeline, Clifford, Curious George, Amelia Bedelia, and Waldo.

C. Evidence: Alibi's

We defined what 'alibi' means. Some of the kids knew and gave some pretty great answers. Then I read aloud the alibi's of each suspect and then asked them if it was an alibi. Then we discussed why it was or was not an alibi for that suspect.

Obviously, I had a little librarian humor mixed in that went over some (but not ALL) of the kids heads. At least the parents (and my wonderful library assistant) fully appreciated the jokes! 

After the alibi activity, our suspects are now: Madeline, Clifford, Waldo, Pigeon, and Amelia Bedelia.

D. Evidence: Motive

We defined 'motive' and then we worked through the potential motives of each character to see they actually had a motive or whether we could eliminate them as a suspect.

After the motive activity, our suspects are still: Madeline, Clifford, Waldo, Pigeon, and Amelia Bedelia.

E. Evidence: Shoe Prints

Next, we went back to our table of evidence and picked up the shoe prints left at the scene of the crime. We had three different types of shoe/foot prints that we compared them to. This one was pretty easy but still fun (and funny) for the kids.

Shoe Print Evidence:

Shoe/Foot Prints for Various Suspects:

Suspects Shoe/Foot Prints:

So, at this point, our last remaining suspects are: Madeline, Amelia Bedelia, and Waldo. Dun, dun, dun!

F. Evidence: Handwriting Analysis

One of our last pieces of physical evidence was a handwritten note. I used fonts on the computer because I thought that would be the easiest so I found two fonts that looked similar to keep it tricky for the kids. 

Handwritten Note Evidence:

Handwriting Comparisons:

It was a little difficult, but the fonts that are most similar to the note found were Madeline's and Amelia Bedelia's. However, I told the kids that we would wait to eliminate anyone because we had one last major piece of evidence!

G. Evidence: Fingerprint Analysis

Before I got into the actual fingerprint I used at the scene of our crime I showed them a very simple fingerprint typing printable that I found from the Making Friends blog. They were able to look at their fingers and see whether their fingers were loops, whirls, or arches. 

Then I had the kids use the fingerprint left at the scene of the crime to match it to the remaining suspects.

Fingerprint Evidence:

Fingerprints of Suspects:

And, after all that, we officially solved the mystery.

Who done it? Amelia Bedelia! I guess I shouldn't be so surprised!

3. Take Home

Since the kids helped solve our mystery, they earned their detective badges. The badges even had a place for them to stamp their thumbprints too!

Notes:

For the first program of the week we had the kids come up in groups for the physical pieces of evidence (tire tracks, foot prints, hand-writing, and fingerprints). That proved to be a little challenging since each group needed to be walked through the evidence and they all had to take turns. 

For the second program of the week we initially started by doing that but, with the increase in the amount of kids, we ended up looking at the last three pieces of physical evidence as a whole group because we were running out of time and that ended up working perfectly.

Overall the program was tons of fun this week! I think both the kids and the parents really enjoyed it which I love since I put so much time and effort into making this particular one shine.