Pirate Island and a Mystery!

Friends~I love a good mystery or a thriller!  My kiddos and I just got back from seeing the movie Brave.  It was super exciting and that bear was fierce!

Throughout this post,  I will be giving you clues to my Mystery!  

(Don't get too excited...it is just a fun hunt for you as you read on:)

After recovering from the movie, we sat down with our friends to play a new game called Pirate Island: A Reading for Details Game from Lakeshore Learning.  This game is geared for first through 3rd graders.  I have been using the cards all week as warm ups with my tutor friends but I was excited to try the game out!

Clue #1 My Mystery involves my FAVORITE Mystery series! 

Check out the experts below! Some real thinkers:)

The set up was easy.  You receive 4 pawns and 2 dice.  You also get a set of red and green question cards and gameboard.  The cards get placed in separate stacks.  See below!

 Clue #2 I made a text to world connection to this book because my Aunt raises birds!

This game really is a ton of fun and the girls loved the decoder on each card.  They could check their answers easily.
You simply slide the card into the case and the red film reveals the answer.  

I like that they had to read the paragraph by themselves and then answer the question.  The cards do tell them which details to listen for so that really helped them zone in what was important in the paragraph.  With my tutor friends, I just read the paragraph to them and had them listen for the details.  I then read the question for them to answer.  It was a perfect warm up or could be really great for those 5 minute time fillers we all need.  It is a huge stack of cards all together!

Clue #3 You travel through the alphabet! 

The winner of the game is the one who reaches the treasure chest first!  Lily and Marley give it a Thumbs UP!

 You can find out more about this game by clicking the image below.

Lakeshore also offers a interactive version of this game and I love the idea of using it with my Smartboard!  Click the image below to check this option out too!

Clue #4 There are 3 super sleuths in this book.

Now for the answer to the Mystery: I am so excited to announce that I just completed my very first A to Z Novel Unit: The Canary Caper!  This unit is perfect for an interactive read for a whole class or a small guided reading group!  If you have not read A to Z Mysteries with your students you are missing out.  Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose are fantastic characters and the tales lead into tons of fun problem solving and beginning inferring skills!

Click the picture below to head over and check it out!  You also can download a preview of 4 pages to get you started!