First graders in Mrs. Adler’s class were inspired by a math routine called “Mystery Monday.” On Mondays during math, students are presented with an image of an unidentified number of items in a jar. It is their job as mathematicians and “detectives” to figure out how many items are inside. They are provided clues that require them to use math concepts to narrow the set of possibilities to a small set of numbers. In the end, the students call upon their estimation skills to solve the mystery and find out how many objects there truly are. The room always buzzes with excitement during the reveal.

The students decided it was time for them to create their own “mysteries” for their friends to solve. In pairs, they counted a collection of objects, formed clues, and designed a “Mystery Monday” presentation using the iPad app Book Creator. The development of the clues proved their understanding of the number system and the patterns embedded in it. Mysteries included clues like, “it is an even number,” “it is between 30-80,” “the first digit is half of the second digit,” and “it follows the pattern 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30…” We plan to hang these up in the hallway to give all BZ Eagles a chance to “crack the case!”