Teaching Tips, Activities & Ideas for the Classroom
Classroom-tested ideas for math and reading mysteries, escape rooms and no-prep lessons, from a teacher of 20+ years.
Teaching Blog
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Beat the Summer Slide: Solve the "Who Stole Summer?" Math Mystery!
The "Who Stole Summer?" CSI math mystery: a no-prep addition and subtraction case that keeps skills sharp over the break. -
Don't Let Summer School Be a Snooze! Solve the Mystery of Engaging Math Practice!
A low-prep CSI math mystery that turns addition and subtraction review into a case to crack. Grades 3–5.
Latest Articles
Explore practical classroom ideas, seasonal teaching tips, and no-prep activity suggestions for math, ELA, science, social studies, and digital learning.
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Emergency Sub Plans That Teach Themselves: The Self-Checking Trick
The best sub plan corrects itself: how suspect elimination lets a substitute run a real lesson cold, in the words of teachers who've left it. -
What Is a Science Mystery? A Teacher's Guide for Grades 3–8
Students read a nonfiction science passage, answer questions to unlock clues and eliminate suspects. How Science Mysteries work. Grades 3–8. -
Introducing Number Cadets: Online Math Mysteries That Run Themselves
Our detective Math Mysteries are now a self-running online academy for Grades K–5. One complete mystery is free at every grade.
Explore Teaching Resources
Browse printable and digital teaching resources for math, reading, science, social studies, homeschool learning, review lessons, centers, and digital escape rooms.