Math Mystery Cases: Clue-Solving Puzzles

Something is missing, mixed up or lost, and only the clues can say what. In this pack children become detectives. Each of five case files opens with a short story and a list of suspects, books, garden beds or orders. Five or six numbered clues narrow the list down. Some clues take two steps, each case has one distractor (a clue that sounds helpful but rules nothing out), and a star marks the clues that are an extra challenge. Every case ends with one question, “Who or what is it?”, and exactly one answer fits all the clues.

The cases use what children already practice: adding and subtracting three- and four-digit numbers, multiplication and division facts, fractions of a set, reading a table, elapsed time, area and perimeter, and rounding to estimate. A detective training page walks through a first case together, and a make-your-own page lets children write a mystery for another child to solve.

Inside: teacher notes, a training page, five case files, a make-your-own template, an eight-question check-up and a worked answer key that shows every step. All you need is pencils and the printed pages. Print in black and white on any printer. The free sample is the teacher notes and the first case.