Tuesday 21 October 2014

Crime Scene Investigation ~ Linked to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe!

Linked to our book topic of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, I created a crime scene investigation themed lesson. I created a carousel in the classroom where the children had to look at five different pieces of evidence which could point to the possible criminal. They had to scrutinise the evidence and decide at the end which character from the novel was the criminal.

Here are some images of the resources and carousel from the lesson.



I created the image of footprints on the carpet by cutting out footprint shapes out of paper, lying them on the floor and the sprinkling talcum powder over them. Then I lifted off the paper to reveal what looked like footprints in the snow! The children really believed this! 



Here is a photo of the display I created after the lesson celebrating the children's work. From the lesson they had to write a wanted poster for the character in the story which they believed to be the criminal. On the display I included some of the evidence the children had looked at in the lesson. 





10 comments:

  1. I absolutely love this! I think it is so much fun. Certainly would have got my imagination going!

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  2. Would it be possible for you to share what the evidence activities were? Would love to do this with my class.

    Thanks

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  3. I love this idea, We are looking at Narnia at the moment. Would you be able to share the evidence ideas?

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  4. Hi sorry for not replying earlier - the evidence was some bells (linked to the Queens sleigh), a book wrapped up in brown paper (linked to Mr Tumnus), a tie (linked to Edmund) and a gold wand (linked back to the Queen!).

    Hope you give it a try!

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  5. Thanks for that, I'm definitely going to do it this week. Did the children just come up with one they thought had done it? There was no right answer?

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    1. Yes no right answer! They all had a mini note book to write detective notes on as they went round to each evidence station! They absolutely loved it! Good luck!

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  6. Hello. If you didn't mind, how was the lesson planned? Did you just have those items and set the science? We're there any hints? Thanks

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    1. Hello Erica, thank you for your comment.

      The lesson was planned as a fairly open lesson. The children had to view and consider all the evidence and who it pointed the finger to. The evidence was the hint itself as they referred to the characters in the book. The TA and myself were the ones to help guide the children with questionning - I would quite often throw a question to a group to throw them in a different direction to deepen and widen their thinking. But they did have to make a decision in the end. For example the foot prints looked like human foot prints so we ruled out Mr Tumnus etc.

      I hope you give it a try - the principle of the lesson could be used with any set of characters from any book really if you just invent a crime parallel to the story!

      Give it a go! Good luck!

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  7. How much of the book had you read at this point? :)

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    1. Thank you for your enquiry. I'd read nearly half of it - up to the point the children had met the Beavers and were on the run from the White Witch.

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