Snowy Day Case Files

I don't know about all of you, but we are "blog stalkers."  Last winter we found an awesome inferencing activity from Babbling Abby and just HAD to have it!  It's called the Snowy Day Case Files.  

I'm not going to lie, it takes forever to prep but it's totally worth it!  Our classes loved it.   

You start out by explaining inferencing.  Babbling Abby included a variety of short paragraphs and the kids had to make inferences about each one... She even included a "cheat sheet" for the teacher.  

We started prepping the case files a few days before we actually wanted to use them because it is quite involved with the items it calls for.  There are 4 different files so you have to spilt the class into 4 detective groups.  

Here's one of them...

Then the real fun begins.  The groups have to work together to try and figure out what everything means. They each have a data sheet to record their inferences.  Once each group has enough time to discuss and record, everyone comes back together to report out.  

All the groups share what was in their file and explain the inferences they made.  We then tried to put all the pieces together to figure out what Tim and Grandma did on the snowy day!  Once we had all the activities narrowed down we talked about what order they might have done them in and made a timeline.  

(Sorry it's shaky)

I know we are getting away from snowy days but it's a great activity to keep in mind for next year! We highly recommend it.