Thanksgiving Fractions CSI Mystery Worksheets

Inside the case file

Thanksgiving fractions practice for 5th grade, set out as one full CSI Mystery Detective math case with a parade theme. It covers adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators, mixed numbers, multiplying fractions by whole numbers, equivalent fractions and comparing fractions. That makes it a fractions review as well as a Thanksgiving math activity. Use it in math centers, as a whole-class challenge, for homework, or with early finishers. It's no prep, and the answer keys are included.

Each clue page is a different kind of puzzle, and each one practices a different fraction skill. Students add up the miles on a town map, shade a grid of equivalent fractions until a picture appears, fill in magic squares, find a way through a corn maze by comparing fractions, and line up a parade using fractions of whole numbers. The activity is self-checking. When the answers are right, there's only one crew member left on the chart at the end.

What Is a CSI Mystery Detective?

It's one story told across five math clues. Students read the case first. Each clue page they solve tells them one fact about the culprit, like a hat or a team, and they cross off the suspects who don't match. Getting down to one name takes every problem on every page.

What's Inside

• The case story and a chart of 15 parade crew suspects
• Clue 1: adding mixed numbers with unlike denominators, road by road, on a town map
• Clue 2: equivalent fractions. Students shade every square equal to 3/4 on a grid of 110 fractions.
• Clue 3: two magic squares of fractions, one 3 by 3 and one 4 by 4, completed by adding and subtracting
• Clue 4: comparing fractions in a corn maze
• Clue 5: multiplying fractions by whole numbers and finding a fraction of a fraction of a number, such as 1/3 of 3/4 of 36
• Answer keys for the chart and all five clues
• Color and black and white versions of every page, plus teacher instructions (30 pages in all)

The Case

The Missing Parade Balloon. The night before the town's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the giant Tom the Turkey balloon disappears from the balloon lot. Fifteen parade crew members had passes that night, and one of them took it.

When to Use This Resource

• Leave it as a sub plan for the days before Thanksgiving break. The instructions and keys are in the pack.
• Give it to a small group that needs more work with unlike denominators.
• Use it in 6th grade to review 5th grade fraction skills before dividing fractions.
• Partners can share one suspect chart and split up the clue pages.
• Homeschool families can spread the five clues over a week.

Grade Levels

Written for 5th grade. Strong 4th graders who know equivalent fractions can try it, and 6th graders can use it as review.

Why Teachers Love Mystery Detectives

• Five different puzzles in one pack, with a new fraction skill on each page
• A wrong answer leaves the wrong suspects on the chart. Students notice and go back to check.
• No technology needed
• The black and white copy saves ink when you print a class set

Want more cases like these?

Follow Kiwiland Education to discover more CSI Mystery Detective cases, no-prep math activities, and detective-themed printables for upper elementary classrooms.

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