Super Spy Sequencing

We had a lot of fun being spies. My room decor for the spy theme was completely inspired by Elementary Shenanigans. Hope King gives a lot of great tips on how to decorate your room as a spy lab.  I probably needed some more black lights, as the ones I had really weren't strong enough. Hope's tip about spraying trash bags with water so they suction to the windows was perfect! Unfortunately, the black lawn trash bags I used did little to slow down the strong desert sun coming in from clear skies. I will definitely have to use drapes/sheets/blankets to cover my windows for a blackout in the future. (These first 3 photos were taken the night before the activity, that's why they're so dark.)

So, in case you choose not to check out Hope's blog (which I highly recommend you take a look at), here is what I did for my spy theme: I taped white yarn up around the room and used 2 black lights to turn the yarn into lasers. I put trash bags over the windows, but they didn't do enough to darken the room. The students had glow sticks and agent in training name tags waiting for them on their desks. My students worked in groups of 3, so each group received a 3-LED work light to help them see. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn on my spy music, so we didn't have that ambiance.

I asked one of the other second grade teachers to take my students for breakfast and explain to them that she didn't know where I was. I then asked the principal to come and introduce me to my class after announcements. Regrettably, there were lots of substitutes in our school that day, so I introduced myself to the class while the principal was making sure that each classroom was covered. I was dressed in a collared shirt, suit jacket, and dress pants. I had my hair put up in a bun, and I wore black sunglasses.

I introduced myself to the students as Special Agent Jones. I told the students that the Secret Service needed their help on some tasks. Before students were allowed to enter the spy lab, they had to pass the security clearance. I used an iPhone app called Phone Security to scan the students' fingerprints. I told them that if they failed the clearance once, then they would be sent to the back of the line, but if they failed the clearance twice, then they would not be allowed to enter the lab.

For this app, you have to tap in the silver box at the top before each fingerprint scan. It scans the student's finger for about 10 seconds and then takes another 5 seconds to analyze the fingerprint. I would definitely play with the app before using it on students! The app says to tap at the top of the page, but it took me a few tries to figure out that it works best if you tap in the box. The first 2 students I had scan their fingerprints were both denied access. I also had 1 or 2 more students "fail the security check". Fortunately, none of my students were denied a second time, so all students were allowed to enter the lab.

I think the security clearance is an absolutely necessary part of the show. The finger scans built  up so much suspense in my kids. Several students said they were nervous or scared while waiting their turn. And the kids went crazy when they walked into the secret lab and saw the lasers! Before letting anyone in, I told students, "Please do not touch the lasers, as I would hate to have to deliver anyone to the hospital for loss of a limb." :-) I instructed students to hang up their backpacks and find their seats immediately upon entering the classroom.

Once all students had passed the security clearance, I asked them to put on their name tags and told them that each student had a glow stick on his/her desk.  I explained to the students that our secret files had gotten mixed up, and the Secret Service needed their help to put the files back in order. I told the students that once they finished this task, there would be more tasks. I explained to the students that I didn't know where their teacher was, but she was supposed to meet me at the school today. I also said that their teacher had told me how good they were at Sequencing and Drawing Conclusions, so I needed their help.

I divided the students into their teams and gave them each a confidential file to put back in order. Each file contained eight pieces that came together to form a story. Each of the stories were true stories from my childhood/teenage years (I didn't tell the students that, though). I made sure to use sequencing words or refer to something that already happened in the story. For example, one file said "Then they loaded the balloons in the car." and the file that followed it said "Once the balloons were in the car, the boys drove to the school." That second sentence didn't start with a sequencing word, but it used part of the previous sentence to ensure students could easily determine the order.

Each page of the file was divided into 4 pieces, so the "files" were each 1/4 of a piece of cardstock. I realize that it would have been more authentic if each file was a full page, but I couldn't think of a way to do that for my 2nd graders. (Not one of my students commented on the size of the "files", so I guess that is me overthinking this.)

When students finished their files, I checked that everything was in the correct order. If the files weren't in the correct order, then I pointed out which files were wrong. When students had all of their files in sequence, I asked them to stack the files in the folder and bring it to the table.

Students then received a riddle (to use their drawing conclusions skills) and a secret message. The riddle led students to a key for the secret code. The secret code was a simple backwards alphabet code. In the photo above, the top left shows the secret code answer. The secret code said, "Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find the missing spelling and vocabulary words using your book."

After figuring out the code students were given a spy story called "Life of a Spy" that I wrote-it's the bottom left picture. The story is about a spy on his way to work in the morning. There were 7 blanks, and each was filled by a spelling or vocabulary word from our story of the week. I have to tell you, our weekly story was not about spies! It was called Life Cycle of a Pumpkin, and the vocabulary words were harvest, fruit, root, soil, smooth, bumpy, and vine. My point is that for an activity like this, your story does not have to have anything to do with the text the students are getting their words from. I put the page number for the missing word after the blank. My students definitely thought this was the hardest activity of the bunch. There were several times where I had students read me the sentence with the blank and asked them if their word made sense in that sentence.

Once students finished the story, they were given the Spy Tasks page. Students had to cut out the descriptions of each of their tasks for the day and glue them in the right order (sequencing). Once glued in order, a sentence was formed from underlined words in each task. The sentence said, "You get money to buy reward coupons." Next time I do this activity, I would keep this page, but remove the reward. The students didn't really need this type of reward for their work. Instead, maybe we could celebrate the first team to finish all the tasks.

Once students turned in their task page and received their money, they were given the Spy Comic page. They were instructed to create a comic about a spy, then cut up the comic, and have someone else put the comic back in order. Students did ask what the comic had to be about. I told the students that they could draw a comic about their activities today or they could draw a fictional comic about a spy. While students were working on their comics, I called teams up to purchase their coupons.

I had asked another second grade teacher to meet us in the computer lab so that she could watch my class while I put the classroom back in order. I returned to the room and pulled everything down and put it all in the cabinet. I then changed clothes (including my hairstyle) and went to pick up my kids. (The cleanup took me about 20 minutes, so having a special or sending students to another class is important.) The spy lab lasted about 2 hours.

Now back as their regular teacher, I told the students that I was late because of car trouble. They told me that a spy had visited them this morning. I told them to stop making stuff up, haha. They showed me their glow sticks and coupons. I told them I couldn't believe one of the other 2nd grade teachers had given them those. Why would she do that?! Of course many students told me that they knew I was the spy all along. I played dumb and never admitted to them that I was the secret agent who was in their room all morning.

My principal did come in about 20 minutes after we started our activities. She apologized for missing the introduction and sat down to watch the students work for a while. After she left, she sent any teacher she saw to visit my room. She said she told them, "Go see what Ms. Rydholm is doing!" :-) The principal later came back and did a formal walkthrough while the students were still working on their spy tasks.

Overall, this lesson was a complete success! I did offer my assistance on the activities, but the students were generally able to work everything out on their own. Because the environment was so exciting, I did have some boys who could hardly contain themselves. I think the other students were pretty good about helping their team get back on track. Maybe next time I will have each team elect a leader whose job it is to keep the group together and working the whole time. As I said earlier, I also would not offer any kind of tangible reward for completing the tasks next time.