Giveaway Winner and a Leprechaun Visit!

And the winner is.....

Comment #49- My fabulous new follower Heather! Congrats, Heather- you are now the proud new owner of "Dex, the Heart of a Hero", by Caralyn Buehner and a $25 gift card to B & N.

Thank you all for taking part in my very first giveaway! It was so much fun and your support was wonderful! Look forward to another (possibly quite soon), as I am nearing 100 followers now! Wowzas....you guys rock :)

In other news, on Wednesday night, a mischievous being came into our classroom and completely destroyed it. When we arrived on Thursday morning, we saw chairs strewn about, supply boxes spilled over, books and games taken out and not put away, green paint spilled on the floor and thus, mysterious tiny green footprints all about the room, spilt "Lucky Charms" cereal, shamrocks and gold glitter all over our tables, and some key evidence- a tiny green hat left with a note that read "¡Jaja! No pueden capturarme! (Haha! You can't catch me!). 

When my students arrived in the morning, before entering our room, I informed them of what had happened. I said that I had called the police, as it was clear someone had entered the room, and that they asked me to fill out a crime report. I shared with them that my students know just as well, if not better where everything is in our classroom, and I would really appreciate their help as well in investigating the evidence and filling out reports. Thus, the "police" gave me a report for each of them to fill out that morning, but they asked me to share with the students that as this is a crime scene, they may not touch any of the evidence- just look- as we do not want to tamper with it. (My acting abilities must have been impeccable, because I am pretty sure most if not all bought into this idea. There were a few faces of sheer horror, before we entered the classroom!)

Once the initial excitement wore down, I called my kids over to the carpet to explain the crime report they would be expected to fill out to assist the police in capturing the suspect. 

On the first page, they had to provide a description of the scene. As we have been working on "Super Paragraphs" lately, I shared with my students that this was the format that the police expected them to use as we want to sound like professionals. (We did brainstorm some key phrases for starting our paragraphs, concluding them, etc. before writing.)

We also chatted about how good crime scene investigators take photos of the evidence. Thus, we had to do so as well.

Finally, the police asked us to include in our report, a sketch of the suspect based on the evidence that we found in the classroom. We of course had to share what key evidence we used to assist us in creating our sketch as well, as any professional sketch artist would do.

While at lunch, I "took" my students reports to the police station. I shared with them upon their return from lunch that the police thought they did a very thorough job, and after reviewing their investigations, they concluded that it most likely was a leprechaun based on the key evidence and it being so close to St. Patrick's Day and all. They said that they would try their best to capture him- but they are tricky little guys! (Well what do you think my students asked next......Can we help them try and capture him? We can make traps Miss Carlson...etc. etc....)

Seriously.....so much fun! And it was a great lesson in descriptive writing and making inferences!

Click on the picture to visit my TpT store, if you are interested in a copy of our "Crime Scene Investigation" packet! It comes in English and Spanish.

And finally- Have a Happy St. Patrick's Day tomorrow!