Looking for a challenging brainy activity for a rainy day? Check out this fun downloadable mystery, available for just $5 on Teachers Pay Teachers.
The family of "Wicked Wilbur" Warrington has gathered at his gothic mansion to celebrate his 100th birthday, but could a series of dangerous mishaps be merely coincidence, or clandestine attempts on his life? Throughout the party, Wilbur narrowly escapes being poisoned, impaled, pushed down a flight of stairs and set upon by a swarm of killer bees. Oddly, after all the excitement had died down and Wilbur is sitting quietly looking over his gifts, he suddenly drops dead of no apparent cause. This clever cooperative activity challenges students to deduce the cause of Wilbur's death, the identity of his murderer, and the means by which he was killed, using only the information found in a series of letters, witness statements, and cryptic coded messages. Download six letters, including two missives from the local constabulary describing the scene and the clues found there, and four witness statements from the party guests, plus four unusual invitations and a strange scrap of paper found after they party by the cleaning service. Challenge your students to work together to find holes in alibis, proximity to weapons, and reasons suspects might throw suspicion on others. Everything needed to solve the case is included in the downloadable documents, using close reading, logical deduction, and decoding mysterious ciphers. Letters and clues can be printed or viewed online, and can be read silently or out loud by students playing the characters. A solution package includes the decoded cryptic messages and a final letter from the Chief Inspector on the case explaining the answers to the mystery. The initial download includes a PDF with a link to a Google Drive, where the rest of the documents can be found. Be sure to sort the files by "Name" and "A-Z" when you view them in the Drive.
Once you've solved it, please leave a rating or review on the Teachers Pay Teachers site :)