Classroom murder mysteries are the ultimate way to engage students in learning.
Students practice reading, comprehension, inference and other important fiction skills, non-fiction skills and critical thinking as they work together to problem solve. Mystery games are also the ultimate way to introduce a mystery unit or discussion on genre, tone, setting...
The games listed here are interactive mystery games. In interactive games players are free to roam, mingle and interview each other. As players interrogate each other they explore plots and subplots.
Murder mystery offers basic questions for students to answer: Who is the victim? Who is the suspect? Were there accomplices? How did the crime occur? What was the weapon? Where did the murder happen: What is the setting? Why did the murder happen: What is the motive?
Additionally, murder mysteries are engaging. Student love them. Scholastic polled students and found mysteries were at the top of the list for what they want to read.
The following activities are interactive classroom activities that promote collaboration, logic, inference, critical thinking, character analysis and fun in your classroom. Students work to solve a mystery involving some of the greatest literary characters of all time.
These are great group activity, classroom team activity, or center activity. Again they are great ways to introduce units on mystery, character, literature or just for a fun and engaging activity. They are also great for classroom parties or bonus time. These mystery games have alternative versions where student teams serve as juries and detectives - as well a players.
Who Poisoned Sherlock Holmes -- a murder without the mystery
The characters of great literary works, including Jane Eyre, Harry Potter, Jay Gatsby, Jo March, Gandalf, Holden Caulfield, Nancy Drew, Hermione Granger, Hamlet, Katniss Everdeen, Juliet Capulet, Simon, Jonas, Victor Frankenstein and Sherlock Holmes gathered at UKTMU (You Know Too Much U) for the Annual Library Association Convention. All have been nominated for the honor of best literary character of all time. The award is more than the prestige of the title. It also comes with a monetary prize of $4 million. The prize is to be given on the last day of the convention.
At dinner last night, this particular group of notables sat at the table of honor. Some knew each other – Juliet, Hamlet and Othello often hang together in the pages of anthologies and Harry and Hermione are old buds. Others were just meeting for the first time.
What they didn’t know, until halfway through the main course, is that Sherlock Holmes had spent the last several weeks gathering information about each and every one of them. Some of the information, Sherlock stated was damaging enough to disqualify that particular character from the competition. He knew if he revealed that information, he would be sure to win the prize. Then he laughed – actually laughed - and said: “Good thing I am of strong moral character. Or am I? One never can tell.”
The characters looked around the table, wondering who the great detective was referring to, and if he would reveal such a secret. Most worried that something in their past, a character flaw or momentary action, could be what Sherlock Holmes was referring to.
After the party, the group returned together to the villa they were sharing. The villa was on a large estate with a lake, horse stables, cottages and a house that could be considered a hotel if not for the meticulous European decor.
At the villa they went their separate ways.
At 8 a.m. the following morning, the county sheriff knocked on the door. The engagement begins.
Two Frankenstein Murder Mysteries
Who Murdered Professor Waldman?
Scenario: The novel is over, and Mary Shelley is not happy. Someone changed her work. Her work! This does not please her! Mary is very protective of her original story, only someone has ripped original pages from early chapters and replaced them with pages depicting Professor Waldman’s death! Mary did not kill Professor Waldman. Waldman was the link to knowledge and light and now he is gone. One of the characters is the murderer. The page where the murderer is revealed is missing. Mary must now rewrite her story. Of course, the outcome will be different because she can’t bring Waldman back. It is up to students to find the murderer and rewrite the story.
