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Transform your classroom this March with our captivating St. Patrick’s Day Mystery Reader’s Theater! Perfect for upper elementary students, this activity combines detective skills and fun, engaging storytelling. Say goodbye to disengaged students and hello to enthusiastic sleuths! With minimal prep and maximum excitement, your students will enhance their reading, writing, and inferencing skills while uncovering who’s causing mischief in Shamrock. Make St. Patrick’s Day unforgettable and educational—grab your mystery reader’s theater today! #ElementaryTeaching #StPatricksDayFun
$7.49
This fun and engaging St. Patrick’s Day mystery reader’s Theater is a perfect March activity for your students! In this Readers’ Theater, students will learn a few detective skills and then use their sleuthing skills to figure out what’s going on at the St. Patrick’s Day Treasure Hunt!
What’s going on in Shamrock?
The town of Shamrock is getting ready for their 25th annual St. Patrick’s Day Lucky Leprechaun Treasure Hunt. Legend says that every year a leprechaun in human disguise sneaks into the game and sabotages the players with her mischievous actions. Legend also says that this secret leprechaun is the reason that there has never been a winner in the 25 years that the game has been played.
Can your students figure out what’s going with these sneaky little leprechauns?
With lots of suspects and circumstantial evidence, the students will have to take good notes and make lots of inferences. This product was created with upper elementary students in mind, but it can definitely be scaled to work with other grade levels as well. So how does it work?
NOTE: This mystery is a little bit different than the rest of our mysteries. In the spirit of the mischievous leprechauns, there’s rhyming, scheming, misdirection, and a surprise twist. We think your students will love it!
Check out the preview to see the actual teacher’s guide.
The students will take part in a 4-act reader’s theater. There are 21 characters which can be shared or doubled up in order to give every student a part. As the story unfolds, so do the clues. After each act, the students will stop, take notes, and discuss any suspicious activities. The final act reveals who exactly is up to no good!
How long will this activity take?
Plan on at least a couple hours.* Reading the script will take at least an hour or so depending on the fluency of your readers and how well they are paying attention for their lines. Using the additional resources that are included will lengthen the amount of time. The more discussion and detective work the students do, the more fun the activity will be. This activity was designed to take up an entire ELA block of time, however, it can be spread out over a week’s time by completing one act a day. It’s a great spring activity or a way to make St. Patrick’s Day extra special
* If you have completed the other Whodunnits, this version will be about the same length as I try to keep the stories to about the same number of total words. However, this version does have less sleuthing than the other versions.
What’s Included?
Why Should You Use This?
I was inspired to create my first mystery product after hosting a murder mystery party for my own 16 year old daughter, who was very much into theater. It was said to be the best party ever! I wondered how I could create something similar for students! I modified the format of the clue delivery system to ensure that every clue was revealed to every student, and voila, Who Stole the Turkey was born. Since then, Who Stole Santa’s List, Who Left Us Cupcakes, Who Freed the Fish, and now Who’s Making Mischief has joined our list of fun classroom whodunnits.
Having the Reader’s Theater is the perfect platform for integrating real academic skills. This activity will feel like a fun day, but not a moment of the day will be wasted!
This product is great because:
Happily brought to you by Rachel Lynette and Cassi Noack of Minds in Bloom.
Want More Mystery Reader’s Theater?
SKU: 7796085
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Hanging Out with Mrs Hall –
This was such a fun one! We have done all of them so far this year. I love how it gets the students reading and engaged. The best part was the ending. They were so surprised.
a Q. –
My students really enjoyed this. Great resource for Language Arts class!
Ginny M. –
My students love these reader’s theatre- like mysteries and ask for one each holiday. It is the high-light of our day!
Rachel K. –
My students really enjoy these stories and reading them aloud. They love searching for clues through the text and figuring out who has done it. Just make sure you have enough time to get it all in because sometimes it can take a few days depending on how long you have for the activity.
Angie H. –
My students are thrilled when they find out we are going to do one of these whodunnit plays! I love the twist on this one.
Cristal W. –
This looks like a great activity. I love the powerpoint visuals and how engaging the activity is. My students loved playing their roles and really took notes on the evidence they noticed. I had some trouble opening the downloadable PDF for the printables. It crashes Adobe every time I try to print it. But I was able to open it by viewing it online and printing from there.
Hannah T. –
My students are obsessed with the reader’s theater mysteries. This is the second one I have purchased after the success of the Valentine’s Day script. I wish I would have bought the bundle. My students get so into character, and even my reluctant writers are frantically taking notes.
Stacey M. –
My kids love reader’s theater and loves doing these. My class just does a cold read using the slides.
Kimberly P. –
We are using it this week before St Patrick’s day for our reading class. The students love doing these. They have even given the characters different voices. We are working on Claim, Evidence and reasoning in science class and this help show them how evidence is used in other subjects too. Great resource, it’s ready to roll and great for the older kids too! Hope they make more for the rest of the school year!
Maria E G. –
My students absolutely love your dramas. I have several of them and they get so excited when I tell them we will be reading one. Thank you.