Our Year Five students had a shock when they walked into school on Tuesday after discovering that their precious and expensive Gold Rush tools had been stolen by mysterious thieves!
A crack team of investigators quickly established a crime scene around the area to preserve any evidence that might’ve helped push the Year 5 detectives in the right direction and aide in locating their tools and the thief who stole them.
The crime scene provided our detectives with critical information for their investigation, with the thieves leaving footprints and mess behind! Among the evidence was an open packet of M&M’s which a clumsy thief dropped on their way out.
Year 5 quickly worked together using their inferring skills to profile suspects, starting with Mrs Reaidi who said that her favourite snack was Chocolate M&M’s, Mrs Reaidi had been at school on Saturday morning to collect her laptop which she left behind when she heard banging in the Year 6 breakout room, followed by a voice yelling “Oh my Goodness!”
Year 5 continued to investigate potential suspects, next up was Mrs Walsh who said that her favourite chocolate was Lindt Chocolate. Mrs Walsh recalled that she had been away from school for the week prior to the incident but came in on Saturday morning to collect student books, after leaving her key at home she had to enter through the Year 5 classrooms and that’s when she heard footsteps leaving the room and noticed that a chair had been knocked over and Chocolate M&M’s had been left on the floor, she then noticed that the Year 5 Gold Rush tools had been stolen!
Mr Baddock was up next and confessed that his favourite chocolate was dark chocolate, but he was also impartial to M&M’s. Mr Baddock told the investigators that he liked to go camping, but that he wasn’t at school on Friday or over the weekend - in fact, he provided an alibi, stating that he was away for the weekend camping with family and watching the State of Origin.
The Cleaner was up next, after all, he was at school cleaning over the weekend. The cleaner told our detectives that he wasn’t a fan of chocolate as it isn’t healthy, however he did recall that while vacuuming the space over the weekend, he received an emergency phone call and left in a rush and may not have locked the door…
Mr Lewis was our next suspect, he told detectives that his favourite chocolate was white chocolate and that he enjoyed building and fixing things. Mr Lewis told detectives that he wasn’t at school during the time in which the incident occured, and that he spent a quiet weekend with his wife watching movies and repairing things around the house.
Mrs Peterson was the final suspect to be interviewed by detectives and confessed that her favourite chocolate was Cadbury Milk. Mrs Peterson told detectives that she wasn’t at school during the time of the incident as it was too cold, and that she was at home in the warmth watching movies.
After interviewing each of the suspects, our detectives came together and used their inferring skills to put the evidence and suspect statements together - after all, Mrs Reaidi said that her favourite snack was Chocolate M&M’s, and a packet of M&M’s was found at the crime scene, but Mrs Walsh was at school during the of the incident and confirmed that she was in the Year 5 space… then again, it was possible that the cleaner simply forgot to lock the door and that a different mystery thief had stolen the Gold Rush tools.
The mystery continues in Year 5 as we work together and build up our case; we’re hopeful that we’ll find the suspect and recover our Gold Rush tools in the very near future!
Note: The suspect profiles in this article are fictional and were developed for this activity.
