Support the development of part-to-whole relationships, schema building, inference abilities, and creative thinking! Can they make their own version of the book to stump friends and family? Online mystery interactives to also develop inference and thinking skills: try The Commodity Mystery Game or Detective Science.
Close-up Mysteries: Read Everyday Mysteries by Jerome Wexler and then send your detective to take photos of close up and full shot items around your house.You can link to books they have read, topics of interest, or even family mug shots. Wanted Posters: Let your child’s creative side loose and create some wanted posters online.Engage the budding artist in your home: The National Gallery for America’s Young Artists’ experimental arts links allow your child to virtually draw, paint, design, and experiment with 3-D and color. Interactive art activities offer a collection of fun multi-media lessons in art history and technique. The online art galleries sections gives you links to explore online art.No museum handy? Take a virtual tour of a room with four Vermeer paintings or take a full virtual field trip to another art museum, such as the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Extend this experience with a trip to a local art museum.Check out more online games based on Blue Balliett’s books.This Flashlight Readers interactive literacy experience brings the popular book by Blue Balliett to life.Take a look at these fun online activities related to the book itself:.Invite your child to use her creativity and problem solving skills to tackle a real-life mystery. Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett is another great book to tie to codes, sleuthing, inference making, and deduction abilities.Extend the activity by trying to decipher the Braille answers to riddles and jokes.Adler, John Wallner, and Alexandra Waller and have your child use Braille (dried raised glue or puffy paint on paper) to create secret codes. Braille: You can also read A Picture Book of Louis Braille by David A.
There is a free app for readers of The Mysterious Benedict’s Society.
Place the time release packet inside the ziplock without yet touching the vinegar as you zip it close (you need to be quick!). Fold the sides into the middle so that the baking soda is “protected” in a time-release packet.
Add some inference skill building by making a mystery letter or riddle to solve, and giving your child clues to help decipher! Use this as a great hook to engage struggling readers: paint secret words, sight words, or fluency sentences! The science secret: The acid in the grape juice reacts with the baking soda, changing its color. When it is completely dry, paint grape juice concentrate across the page to reveal the message. water and use Q-tip or paintbrush to encode a secret message. Secret Messages: Encourage your child to be like Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh and make their own invisible ink pens.Take advantage of these sleuthing activities to engage your young agent: Use the below activities to ignite your child’s passion, nurture a weak area, or foster the advancement of a strength.Ĭhildren this age are experimenting with increased independence, taking perspective, and applying newly developed problem solving skills. Knowing the process by which your child is growing gives you many options to help support and advance development.