Halloween Close Reading Mystery Inference Activity - Toilet Paper Prank

Halloween Close Reading Mystery Text Evidence Inference Activity - Prank Mystery: Engage your students with a captivating close reading inference activity that challenges them to explore and find text evidence, make inferences, and read more closely. This resource provides all the necessary materials to facilitate this fun and creative reading activity in your classroom. Students will have the opportunity to work collaboratively, enhancing their problem-solving and critical-thinking skills as they unravel the mystery together. This works well around Halloween; however, it can also be used at any point in the year.

The Henderson’s are hosting a Halloween Fright Night Party for which everyone in attendance must hide their identity with a costume. As a pre-party game, the partygoers drop hints for what costumes they will be wearing using puns and wordplay in a group chat. These clues become all the more important when the house is toilet-papered. Your students need to find out who did it.

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

Included In This Close Reading Inference Mystery Activity:

➡️ Inference Mystery Presentation Slides: This 15-slide PowerPoint presentation serves as the guide for the activity, leading students through the mystery with a captivating backstory, detailed evidence, and thorough explanations for each suspect's innocence or guilt. The slides are crafted to engage students and encourage critical thinking as they analyze the clues and find text evidence.

➡️ Classroom Poster: Display this visually appealing poster designed to grab students' attention as they enter the classroom, setting the stage and drawing students into the mystery ahead.

➡️ Original Narrative Backstory: Use this short story to introduce the mystery. Within the story are hidden clues and subtle hints, and the narrative will engage students' curiosity and initiate the mystery.

➡️ A Variety of Clues and Evidence: Students will examine and read a message board with plenty of puns and word-play that require students to close read and use their inference skills to determine who toilet papered the house!

➡️ Text Evidence Graphic Organizer: Students will use the provided graphic organizer to organize their findings and evaluate the guilt or innocence of each suspect. This tool encourages students to support their conclusions with text evidence from the investigation.

➡️ Teacher Answer Key: Use the detailed answer key, both in print format and integrated into the presentation slides, to efficiently review students' work and share the reasons for each suspect's innocence or guilt.

How This Close Reading Inference Mystery Activity Works:

• Start by putting up the poster on your door to build anticipation when students enter the room. When students enter, put them in small groups, so they can work together to try to solve the mystery.
• Use the presentation slides to guide you through each element of the lesson. The slides will help you introduce the story and evidence to each of the groups.
• Hand out all the evidence to 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 presentation slides to reveal which suspects are guilty and go through the evidence for each one.
  
  

© Presto Plans

➡️ Want 10 free ELA resources sent to your inbox? Click here!