Detective Classroom Transformation!

Have you seen all the awesome classroom transformations floating around social media? I've been toying with this idea for a while, and when I started planning for this week's skills (drawing conclusions and context clues), I knew this was the perfect opportunity to bring in a little thematic fun. I was a little concerned that the amount of effort to pull it off would just be too much, but I have to say that my kids' excitement and learning was WELL worth the upfront work!

I started with this really great product I found on TPT. 

This product is editable and gives step by step instructions for setting up this mystery. Basically, we set up a crime scene with particular evidence. Students observed the scene. Then we provided suspect pages (questions/answers already completed ahead of time from the product) that students read. They highlighted evidence from the suspect sheets that matched the evidence in the crime scene to infer who kidnapped the principal.

My awesome 3rd grade team all wanted to join in the fun, so we divided the tasks to get ready for this classroom transformation. I updated the digital materials to make it fit our school and printed off everything we needed, including a few decorations, one teacher copied everything, another one laminated and cut out name tags for the kids, and one gathered the physical materials for decorating like crime scene tape, Dollar Tree fake mustaches, and black tablecloths.

I loved this classroom transformation because it was simple, exciting, and a rigorous application of skills for students.  

Preparing (including the printing and everything) took about an hour or perhaps 1 1/2 hours. Here's what they kids saw when they arrived at school:

I watched a fabulous vlogger on Youtube to get some great ideas about pulling off this transformation. You can see it here. As the students arrived, I welcomed them to the Kilgo Detective Agency and called them "Agent ____." They were really into the detective theme and I think that helped them persevere when the detective challenge became, well...challenging. Check out these pictures of my detectives at work:

My principal (and the culprit, a second grade teacher) were so great to play along! Our principal allowed us to use his office as the crime scene, and the teacher brought a pair of her shoes for us to use as evidence and really played the part well. 

The best part of this day was that students were HIGHLY engaged in learning and is definitely something I will do again. 

How about you? I'd love to hear about your classroom transformation success stories, ideas, and questions. Drop me a comment below and let's talk.