Put on your Sherlock Holmes hat! A Forensic Science and Detective Lesson Plan is perfect for elementary students, because mysteries are always fun to solve. There are tons of detective activities for all subjects (math, reading, writing, science, art and even exercise!). So let’s go study fingerprints, make some invisible ink and solve some mysteries (while “secretly” working on math and reading comprehension!). And don’t forget to join our Facebook Group and “like” our Facebook Page, so you won’t miss out on any of our educational fun!
If you are looking for a great way to keep your children entertained for hours, get your big kids this Mysterium Board Game (it is like a massively improved version of the board game Clue from our childhood!). Or the book Brain Games: Criminal Mind Puzzles is fabulous too (for an independent activity.)!
📚 Reading: Free Mystery Worksheets
- (Early Readers): Be a “Sound Detective” and work on listening to beginning sounds in words with this free worksheet: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Beginning-Sound-Detectives-Free-QR-Code-Activity-1199905
- (K-2nd Grade):
- I LOVE this set of reading comprehension worksheets! Even if your little one needs help reading the short story on each page, they will have fun being a Super Text Detective: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Text-Detectives-Find-the-Text-Evidence-FREEBIE-Sampler-1346323
- You get to be a Synonym Detective! Practice reading these words and matching them with their synonyms: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Synonym-Detective-Worksheet-392647
- (3rd-5th Grade):
- Learn how fingerprinting works with this great article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/fingerprinting1.htm
- Expand your vocabulary by being a context clue detective with these worksheets: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Context-Clue-Detective-238935
- OR learn how to decode words by being a Greek Roots Detective: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Decoding-Detectives-Greek-Root-Word-Vocabulary-Study-UNIT-1-ELA-CCSS-Aligned-595719
🧪 Science Detective Games
- Make your very own invisible ink with just baking soda, food coloring and lemon juice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGi34lm05ow
- (K – 2nd Grade): Take a closer look at your own fingerprints and make your own “print” using just a piece of scotch tape and a pencil: https://www.scholastic.com/parents/school-success/learning-toolkit-blog/be-fingerprint-detective.html
- (3rd – 5th Grade): Do a forensic science project all about fingerprints with Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/finding-fingerprints/
- Let’s learn about the science that crime scene experts and forensic experts use!
- Watch this video to learn how a crime scene analyst lifts fingerprints off of different surfaces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OONfQcGd-uE
- This video shows how forensic experts analyze a crime scene by studying bloodstain patterns (it isn’t super gruesome, but maybe not ideal for little ones): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jltioeaEyY
- Skill Lab: Science Detective is a well made collection of mini-games with an underlying detective story theme. When you play it, you are actually making a contribution to the world of science! I highly recommend the Shadow Match mini-game (inside the museum building) for a great challenge! Free preparation for the OLSAT or COGAT tests? Possibly! The Shadow Match game reminds me of the visualization components that those standardized tests are checking for: https://www.scienceathome.org/games/skill-lab-science-detective/play-skill-lab/
- Want even more? Checkout the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) page with tons of forensics experiments, activities and articles: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/students/highschool/chemistryclubs/activities/forensics.html
🧮 Math: Forensic & Detective Worksheets
- Learn how detectives and forensic scientists use a footprint to determine a person’s approximate height! Read how it is done and then try it at home with the worksheet template at the bottom of the page: http://www.cyberbee.com/whodunnit/foot.html
- (K-2nd Grade): Be a “Place Value Detective” and learn about the difference between the ones, tens and hundreds places! Then figure out a mystery problem at the end! https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Place-Value-Detective-385095
- (3rd-5th Grade):
- If you are only going to do one detective-themed math worksheet, I would HIGHLY recommend that this be the one!!! This free, printable set of Word Problem Detective Task Cards is great: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Word-Problem-Detective-1694393
- Try your hand at being a number detective with this free worksheet: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Number-Detectives-3-5-211207
- OR be a “Doubles Detective” by learning about multiplication patterns with this quick worksheet: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREE-Doubles-Detective-Multiplication-Strategy-375932
✏ Writing: Whodunnit Mystery & Detective Writing
- What could be better than a multi-part Whodunnit Mystery? While this free printable looks like a lot of pages, you can read it digitally or skip printing the first 6 pages (and the last page too!)! Younger ones may need help reading this but will have fun solving the mystery! http://mysteriesunit.weebly.com/uploads/2/6/8/4/26849573/whodunnit_mystery.pdf
- (K-2nd Grade): Be a Shadow Detective! Go outside several times throughout the day and see how your shadow changes! You will measure the length of your shadow at various times and then write about how it changed throughout the day! https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Shadow-Detectives-268969
- (3rd-5th Grade): Be a History Detective by picking from their list of historical events, doing some research, and then answering some important questions about it: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/History-Detective-Report-152963
🖌ART: Fingerprint Animals
Let’s make some fingerprint animal art!!! It would be IMPOSSIBLE to write about fingerprint animals (or even fingerprint art in general) without mentioning Ed Emberley! He is the KING of fingerprint art. My kids love all of his books and it can keep them busy all afternoon!!! If you don’t have any of his books though (first, go buy some here), then you can do these three thumbprint art lessons from his website:
- Cat Fingerprint Art: http://www.edemberley.com/pages/print/cat.html
- Thumbody Fingerprint Art: http://www.edemberley.com/pages/print/body.html
- Owl Fingerprint Art: http://www.edemberley.com/pages/print/owl.html
🤸♀️Exercise: Secret Handshakes
Every good detective needs to know some secret handshakes! Plus, by this point, we need to get up and move our bodies around. Luckily, Koo Koo Kanga Roo has a great collection of FIVE different secret handshake videos to try out!
- Koo Koo Kanga Roo Secret Handshake #1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv4-Y0uYn9Y
- Koo Koo Kanga Roo Secret Handshake #2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHzJnRSGnTw
- Koo Koo Kanga Roo Secret Handshake #3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKNLYx7QbM4
- Koo Koo Kanga Roo Secret Handshake #4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZCUoPu8ZhM
- Koo Koo Kanga Roo Secret Handshake #5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YByx_Szg-UI
And the most fun part… share a photo of your fingerprint art (or of any of the other fun activities) on Facebook! Make sure to include a link to this website or to our Facebook Group and Facebook Page, so that we can see it too! I’ve purposefully added a lot of options for parents who need to keep their kiddos occupied for more time and to allow you to cater to your children’s preferences.
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