SPAG Murder Mystery!

This is a great resource I have used with my Year 5 group, but would work well as SAT’s revision or as individual teaching elements in LKS2 or as a recap of skills in KS3.

The Murder Mystery consists of five challenges based on five different SPAG areas. The children must follow the instructions on each challenge to find a clue. Each clue helps to eliminate people from the suspect list. A notebook file is included with examples of each style of challenge in order to check understanding before the children begin each task.

The task begins with a story about a murder in a sleepy village and asks the children to help solve the case.

Included in this set of resources is:

1. Instructions for the teacher.
2. A story introducing the event.
3. The suspect list.
4. Five clues** (with all of the answers). **
5. A self-assessment tool to use at the end of the unit of work.
6. A bright, colourful Notebook file which guides through each challenge and includes examples.
7. A lesson plan.

SPAG skills covered by this resource include:
Clue 1: Full stops and Capital Letters.
Clue 2: Nouns, Adjectives and Verbs.
Clue 2: Commas
Clue 4: Subordinating and Co-ordinating conjunctions.
Clue 5: Speech Punctuation.

This works brilliantly in mixed ability groups or by individual groups of pupils. Higher ability pupils relish the challenge of investigating for themselves whereas some lower ability or SEN children will need support. It can be used across one (or a series of) lessons or as a weekly starter/plenary/SPAG task which can extend the ‘whodunit’ tension across an entire half term.