Education News

Learning tasks in The Inbestigators Teaching Toolkit will help Year 3-6 students to better comprehend the mystery genre, teaching them to read and think like a detective.

In The Inbestigators, puzzle prodigy Maudie solves a crime on her first day at school with her new classmates Ezra, Ava and Kyle, the future becomes obvious: the four children must form a detective agency together. Operating out of the granny flat in Ezra’s backyard, these funny and disparate kids from Grade Five solve one thorny school playground or neighbourhood mystery after another, and become best friends in the process.

Mystery series like The Inbestigators are so engaging partly because they position readers as active participants in solving a crime. They put themselves in the detectives' shoes and collect clues alongside them, paying close attention to what the detective thinks, sees, does, and says. 

In our newly released Teaching Toolkit for this series, Year 3-6 students will practise making inferences, examine plot, and more. Tasks will help students to understand the mystery genre, and build the knowledge and skills necessary for them to craft their own engaging mystery stories.

Lessons can be approached individually or incorporated into a longer unit on the mystery genre. Learning tasks in The Inbestigators Teaching Toolkit are aligned to the Australian Curriculum, with links made to English, Critical and Creative Thinking, and Personal and Social Capability.

Download this free teaching resource from the ACTF now.

The Inbestigators is available to purchase through the ACTF Shop, and is currently streaming on ABC iview.