Close Reading Digital Mystery Inference Activity - Who Stole the Bunny Mascot?

This digital close reading inference mystery activity is a fun way to engage your students and challenge them to look for text evidence, infer information, and read more closely. The resource includes everything you need to facilitate the activity in your classroom. This works well as an Easter reading mystery since the mascot is a bunny, but there are no direct references to Easter, so it can be used at any point in the year!

The high school football team made it to the semi-finals, and to celebrate, there's a pep rally in the cafeteria before the big game. When the pep rally begins, the beloved school mascot, Mr. Bold Bunny, is nowhere to be found. Someone stole the mascot costume. Your students need to find out who did it.

This is a Google-compatible activity, and students complete all the work on the computer. This works well with distance learning, 1:1 classrooms, remote teaching, Google Classroom, or for online education.

This is included in our best-selling full-year reading program:
>>> Reading Mysteries Digital Program

Included In This Digital Close Reading Inference Activity:

➡️ Inference Mystery Google Slides: This 15-slide Google Slides presentation guides the mystery with the backstory, evidence, and detailed explanations for why each suspect is innocent and why the person is guilty of stealing the school mascot.

➡️ Original Narrative Backstory: Use this short story to set up and initiate the mystery, with clues hidden within the text!

➡️ A Variety of Digital Clues and Evidence: These require students to close read and use their inference skills. There is a football team initiation list, a text message, a work order for a water treatment service, an email, a student permission slip, an exam booklet, an overheard monologue, school staff meeting notes, and a school schedule.

➡️ “Who Stole the Mascot?” Digital Graphic Organizer: Students can use this to keep track of their findings that support or refute different suspects in the mystery.

➡️ Teacher Answer Key: This is made available in print format and within Google Slides to make reviewing students’ work a breeze.

How The Digital Close Reading Inference Activity Works:

• Use the Google Slides to guide you through each element of the inference activity. The slides will help you introduce the story and evidence to each of the groups.
• Share all the evidence with students and allow them time to make their predictions and inferences and solve the mystery.
• Once each group has made their final prediction, use the Google Slides to reveal the culprit and go through each of the suspects to show the evidence of their innocence or guilt.

What Teachers Are Saying About This Digital Close Reading Inference Activity:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The was really fun and challenging for my 8th grade students. A perfect activity for the end of the week!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ My students ADORE any of these mystery activities! They really get into being the first one to figure everything out. It's also a great way for them to practice some of the skills less practiced on the daily worksheet-type assessments.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I love using these mystery inferencing activities with my 7th-grade ELA classes! We set up each of the pages in different stations around our large group instruction room, and students are always interested in getting to the answer! They are set up in a fun and engaging way!

If you like this, you’ll love this resource: 
>>> Inference Activities Bundle

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