Free teaching guide · Grades 1–3 (ages 6–8)
Grid Mysteries
The Little Detectives · Detective school
2 sessions of 30 to 40 minutes · 8 missions
Teacher’s guide
Learning goals
- Read and understand short clues.
- Find your way on a grid (columns A to D, rows 1 to 4).
- Understand “next to” (right above, below, to the left or to the right).
- Reason by elimination and explain your answer.
Lesson plan
Session 1 · Becoming a detective
- Missions 1 and 2: find squares on the grid and understand “next to.”
- Mission 3: read the rules together (page 4 of the book).
- Mission 4: the practice case, solved together on the board.
Session 2 · The first real case
- Mission 5: the teacher’s pencil case, in pairs, with tokens.
- Sharing time: each student explains in what order they placed the tokens.
- Missions 6 to 8: word search, detective card and making up a case.
- Hand out the Super Detective diploma.
Tips and discussion ideas
- Hint for case #1, straight from the book: “Start with Max: there is only one beanbag!”
- Case #1 can also be played online, on the interactive whiteboard: it was our first puzzle of the week (“Puzzle of the week” page).
- The book comes with 24 tokens and “Do Not Cross” strips to cut out, plus a blank grid for making up your own cases.
Student pages
Your missions
Name: ______________________ Date: ______________
Mission 1Find the squares
Every square has a name: a letter (the column) and a number (the row). Example: A1 is in the top left corner.
1. Which square is the beanbag in?
2. Which square is the chair in?
3. Which squares have a table?
4. Which squares have a bookshelf?
5. Which area is square B2 in?
Mission 2Right next to it
Color the squares “next to” the star green: right above, below, to the left or to the right. Squares that touch only at a corner don’t count!
Mission 3The detective’s rules
Read the rules together, on page 4 of the book.
Mission 4The practice case
Let’s solve it together, step by step.
Mission 5Your first case: the teacher’s pencil case
Place Max, Leo, Zoe and the pencil case: only one token per row and per column. Who was alone with the pencil case?
Mission 6The detective’s words
Find the 8 hidden words (across or down).
| D | E | T | E | C | T | I | V | E |
| C | N | M | C | V | L | R | S | P |
| U | C | L | U | E | J | I | Q | O |
| L | M | M | R | O | W | F | U | E |
| P | D | G | N | S | V | A | A | F |
| R | T | O | K | E | N | I | R | S |
| I | E | G | I | S | L | J | E | V |
| T | D | S | U | S | P | E | C | T |
| O | M | I | G | R | I | D | H | I |
- CLUE
- SUSPECT
- CULPRIT
- GRID
- TOKEN
- SQUARE
- ROW
- DETECTIVE
Mission 7Your detective card
Fill in your card and draw your portrait.
Little Detectives Agency
Detective name:
Age:
My superpower:
My favorite case:
Mission 8Make up your own case
Draw furniture in the grid, choose a missing object, place your tokens (one per row and per column), then write one clue for each character. Ask a classmate to solve it!
My clues:
1.
2.
3.
4.
The culprit:
Super Detective Diploma
This diploma is awarded to
who read the clues, placed the tokens without a single mistake and unmasked the culprit!
Date ______ / ______ / ________ · Signature: ________________
For the teacher
Answer key
The answer key is waiting for you
Enter your email address to see it, print the guide and get it as a PDF. It’s free.
Mission 1Find the squares
Every square has a name: a letter (the column) and a number (the row). Example: A1 is in the top left corner.
1. Which square is the beanbag in?
D1
2. Which square is the chair in?
A3
3. Which squares have a table?
A1 and A2
4. Which squares have a bookshelf?
C1 and C3
5. Which area is square B2 in?
The playground
Mission 2Right next to it
Color the squares “next to” the star green: right above, below, to the left or to the right. Squares that touch only at a corner don’t count!
Mission 4The practice case
Let’s solve it together, step by step.
Zoe goes to B4, Noah to A2, the snack to C1 and Leo to D3: the snack is in the library, and only Zoe is there. It’s Zoe!
Mission 5Your first case: the teacher’s pencil case
Place Max, Leo, Zoe and the pencil case: only one token per row and per column. Who was alone with the pencil case?
Max goes to D1 (only one beanbag), Zoe to A3 (only one chair), Leo to B2 and the pencil case to C4: the pencil case was on the playground, alone with Leo. It’s Leo!
Mission 6The detective’s words
Find the 8 hidden words (across or down).
| D | E | T | E | C | T | I | V | E |
| C | N | M | C | V | L | R | S | P |
| U | C | L | U | E | J | I | Q | O |
| L | M | M | R | O | W | F | U | E |
| P | D | G | N | S | V | A | A | F |
| R | T | O | K | E | N | I | R | S |
| I | E | G | I | S | L | J | E | V |
| T | D | S | U | S | P | E | C | T |
| O | M | I | G | R | I | D | H | I |
- CLUE
- SUSPECT
- CULPRIT
- GRID
- TOKEN
- SQUARE
- ROW
- DETECTIVE