Who Dunnit?Your lesson will take place in the Reading Adventureland exhibit. Step into a gigantic pop-up book as you follow the Yellow Brick Road into five literary landscapes from children’s books: Adventure Island, Mystery Mansion, Fairy Tale Forest, the Upside-Down Nonsense House, and the Wizard’s Workshop. Students will have lots of hands-on fun that inspires them to laugh, play, learn, and READ!
Lesson Extensions for Before or After Your Visit
The following activities are designed for your class to enjoy before or after your museum visit. Familiarizing students with the lesson concepts can enrich your museum experience.
Each genre has foundational books that are used in the exhibit in interactive ways. Use the following “recipes” and activities to create great stories in each genre. Introduce the stories and recipes to students before their visit, and then follow up with literary activities to enrich and deepen students’ understanding after their museum visit.
| Genre | Books | Recipe | Activity |
| Fairy Tales | Three Billy Goats Gruff Cinderella Jack and the Beanstalk (unique versions) | Hopes + Heroes = Happiness | Play fairy-tale charades where scenes are acted out from fairy tales. Students guess the scene and fairy tale. |
| Fantasy | The Wing Shop Winnie the Pooh The Rainbow Goblins | Magic + Wisdom = Good Fantasy | Pair students: take the roles of hero and villain, then create a scene of fantasy that includes both villain and hero. |
| Mystery | It Looked Like Spilt Milk Encyclopedia Brown Cam Jansen Mysteries | Seeing + Thinking = Solving | Mystery Games: Button, Button and fingerprint matching. Write a class mystery. |
| Nonsense | Amelia Bedelia series Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Dr. Seuss Books | Life – Logic = Laughs | Wear nonsense hats to school. Turn a logical sentence into nonsense. Tongue Twisters. |
| Adventure | Swiss Family Robinson Pippi Longstocking I Want to Be a Pirate | Calamity + Quick Thinking = Adventure | Create problem solving scenarios: What if…. Teacher creates the “what if…” and students create the adventure and act it out. |
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