We have been writing mystery stories in class and have created a class story. Please find it below. Students have been sent home with a bound collection of stories, including their own and ours below. Enjoy!
AHHHHHHH!
The scream rang out through the empty halls
of Jack MacKenzie School one Tuesday morning. It was quickly followed by the
sound of a door slamming. Miss Foell had reached her limit. For what seemed to
be the hundredth time, a student had claimed his pencil was missing. Jed’s
brown hair flew as he quickly tried to hide in the classroom’s corner library
behind the Guinness Book of World Records. His green eyes worriedly
peeked towards Molly. Her red hair was easy to spot in the classroom, as was
the anger flashing in her blue eyes.
“How does this keep happening?” muttered
Molly. It had been two weeks of disappearing pencils in the Grade 4/5
classroom. Their fun, energetic teacher Miss Foell had become as frustrated as
bull in a ring. Molly had had enough. Her frustration was mounting and Jed
could predict what would happen next. He could also predict it would not end
well. He, being much more patient, tried to calm Molly down.
“Just relax. It’s not your pencil. It’s
okay.” But Jed’s efforts went unheard. Molly was angry.
“I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS KEEPS HAPPENING!” She
was yelling now. Her screams echoed off the classroom walls and startled
Gabrielle – who had been crying over her lost birthday pencil – into silence.
The whole class, already on edge due to a screaming teacher, could barely
handle this new excitement. Gabrielle froze, staring wide-eyed at the
screeching girl. Her hands cradled the small metal end of an eraser, the only
part of her precious birthday pencil that remained.
Jed got up slowly from the corner and
timidly said to Molly, “Maybe we should go for a walk.” His voice trembled and
was barely louder than a mouse’s squeak. Molly, who may have been grumpy but was
not unintelligent, saw reason and agreed to cool down.
Over the next week, the pencil population
at Jack MacKenzie School continued to dwindle. Pencils were becoming as
endangered as the polar bear. Theories ran wildly around the school about the
cause of the mysterious disappearances.
Jed heard one, in the bathroom, from a second-grader about the ghost of
a teacher stealing pencils in retribution for all those pencils that were
‘borrowed’ by students and never returned. In another theory Molly heard on the
new playground, a tiny leprechaun was stealing pencils to add to his pot of
gold. Sales of lint brushes had also skyrocketed as students were finding an
ever-increasing amount of fur across their belongings.
Whatever the reason, the pencil thievery
had to stop. Not only were teachers on edge, students could no longer finish
their work in any way except using the school’s incredibly slow mini laptops.
Using these minis was as frustrating as doing homework on a sunny Saturday
afternoon.
Jed and Molly had to do something. This
unlikely pair had some experience in detective work, having solved the
mysterious cupcake disappearance of September ’12 (Another student had eaten
it).
Sitting on top of the circular monkey bars
at afternoon recess, Molly said, “Jed, we have to look into this. I can’t take
it anymore. I have to keep my pencils locked up at home. I’m too worried to
bring them to school.”
“But isn’t this more a principal’s job to
look into?” Jed questioned.
Molly grabbed Jed by the arm and dragged
him into the school while Mr. Hollinger wasn’t looking. The two crept quietly
through the empty hallways, listening carefully for any teachers – or clues.
Slowly, with light-feet, they trod up the stairs and into their classroom.
“Spread out quickly,” whispered Molly to Jed. They both, on hands and knees,
began crawling.
Molly moved quickly over to the corner of the
classroom where Gabrielle had been crying. Jed, more hesitantly, crawled
towards the back cupboard.
Scritch
scritch screeeeccccchhh
Soft noises echoed menacingly in the back
of the room. “Ummmmm, Molly?” Jed choked out. Molly impatiently stood up. For a
moment, Jed was distracted. Her pants were covered in sawdust.
Scritccch
scraaatccch eeeek
The noises drew his attention back
immediately. “Molly… Did you ever think that a teacher’s ghost might want the
pencils?”
Scrrritttttcccccch
Jed
was starting to shake. He could feel his fingers tremble almost as fast as a
dog’s tail. Molly walked confidently up to Jed and grabbed his hand just as he
started to run for the door. “Not a chance,” she said firmly to him. Jed, too
timid to do anything else, stood perfectly still, closed his eyes and pretended
he was back on the playground. Molly, brave, impatient, loud Molly, reached a
hand confidently for the cupboard door. Without hesitation, she grasped the
handle and flung the door open.
SCRRRIIIIIITTTCCCH!
SCRRAAAAATCCCHHH!
The noise was louder now. Jed’s knees
started to shake. His stomach was in more knots than the school’s basket of
skipping ropes. Molly wouldn’t have told anyone, but her insides were full of
more butterflies than Ms. Gilroy-Beck’s classroom in June. She slowly reached
her hand outwards to pull the first cupboard drawer open.
SCREEETTTCCCCHHHHHHH
The drawer slowly began to move. She pulled
carefully, her heart pounding. The idea of a ghost was now implanted in her mind.
What would she find? Teachers did not like losing their pencils, she knew that
much. Maybe it wasn’t unreasonable to expect a ghost…
The cupboard drawer was nearly fully
extended. Two sets of eyes were glued in unmistakable terror on the shifting drawer
as it moved the last few centimeters outwards.
EEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK!!
The noise was louder now, almost
unbearable. The tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Three sets of eyes now stared at each
other.
“Awwww,” Jed cooed, “it’s a hamster!” A
small, golden hamster stared wide-eyed, and rather guiltily, at Jed &
Molly.
Just at that moment, the classroom door
flung open unexpectedly. Mrs. Bryce, the Grade 3 teacher, strode into the
classroom right towards the stunned pair of students.
“Oh thank goodness!” she cried. “You found
Jelly Bean!”
“What?” said Molly.
“Pardon me,” corrected Mrs. Bryce. Molly
tried not to roll her eyes.
“Pardon me?” Jed asked politely.
“Jelly Bean escaped from our classroom a
few weeks ago,” Mrs. Bryce explained. “I’m so happy you found her! We were
starting to fear the worst.”
The story spread quickly around the
building as so often happens with stories in an elementary school. Jed and
Molly were quickly made into brave, savvy detectives as the stories were retold
with more and more exaggeration. In one version Jed heard, in the bathroom
again, Molly climbed up to the second story window to get into the classroom using
only a skipping rope and then repelled down using a chain of paperclips.
One thing was for sure though. Mechanical
pencils became very popular in the Grade 4/5 classroom.
On Thursday, we began a new unit by role-playing a sudden plane crash on a deserted tropical island (luckily no one was hurt). Students had to figure out what to do and were able to prioritize fairly quickly the essentials (water, food & build shelter) although I must admit it was fun to watch them attempt to get each other's attention to organize. We have begun our unit on Government (and its importance) which will continue until the last week of school (yay!)
On Monday, we arrived at school to determine that our Literacy in Action 5B texts were missing -- the exact ones we needed to start our new unit! We found some interesting clues in the classroom and finally tracked the texts to Miss Baker's Kindergarten rooms! In other news, we started an ELA unit on Mysteries.
We were very happy today to have Mr. Mitchell talk to us about the importance of helmets. While the STARS bandages were exciting, I really appreciated what he had to say about helmet safety. I found it interesting to think about the word 'concussion' - which has become quite common. Mr. Mitchell helped to re-frame our thinking about the word .... concussions are brain injuries. After his presentation, we looked up some really cool helmets, found Moosimin on a map and then got to work designing helmets we thought kids would like to wear! We are going to work on a bulletin board to convince students that helmet safety is important.
In Science, the Grade 4s have continued talking about sound. We are learning how woodwind, percussion and brass instruments change pitch -- all the while thinking about our final assignment to design a unique instrument. The Grade 5s are starting to investigate our simple machines make our lives easier. We are learning about the different classes of levers -- and thinking how we could use a lever in our final assignment (Special note: You can find out more about Grade 4 & 5 Science Assignments this term under the 'Assessment' tab above). 
In Math, we are beginning a new unit on Statistics & Probability. Today, we collected data from the Grade 2s and 3s on how they got to school to practice making tally marks. We compared our first-hand data to second-hand data from other schools in Canada. We finishes our unit Shape & Space unit on 2-D and 3-D shapes on Thursday by testing student-designed bridges. Congratulations Cassy & Isaac whose bridges both held up to 130g! 
On Monday, we got to see a Battle of the Books in action ... which also inspired us to have a Kahoot! quiz on reading strategies Wednesday.
