Christmas Close Reading Mystery Inference Activity - Who Destroyed the Snowman?

Christmas Close Reading Inference Mystery - Who Destroyed the Snowman?: This Christmas close reading activity is a fun and engaging way to challenge students to look for text evidence, make inferences, and read more closely. Through a mystery-style format, students analyze realistic documents, collaborate with classmates, and apply critical reading strategies to solve the case. The resource includes everything you need to facilitate the activity in your classroom with minimal prep. While it works perfectly as a festive holiday lesson, the resource does not specifically mention Christmas, so it can also be used as a winter-themed activity anytime between November and April.

Students will read the backstory to learn that Mia and her father spend all day building a huge snowman for the winter carnival in hopes of winning one of the three snowmobile prizes. When they wake up the next morning, however, their creation has been destroyed. Someone has sabotaged them, and it’s up to your students to figure out who did it.

This is included in our best-selling full-year program:
→ Reading Mysteries Program

Included In This Christmas Close Reading Activity:

➡️ PowerPoint Presentation: This 15-slide PowerPoint guides the entire mystery from start to finish. It introduces the backstory, presents each piece of evidence in an organized sequence, walks students through suspect analysis, and reveals the culprit. The final slides clearly explain why each suspect is innocent and why the guilty party is responsible.

➡️ "Who Destroyed The Snowman?" Classroom Poster: Display this eye-catching poster on your classroom door or wall to build excitement and curiosity before the lesson begins. It immediately pulls students into the mystery and helps set the tone for the investigation.

➡️ Original Narrative Backstory: This engaging story introduces students to Mia and her father, who work hard to build a snowman for a winter carnival competition, only to discover it destroyed the next morning. The narrative establishes the problem, introduces the suspects, and provides important context students will use throughout the investigation.

➡️ A Variety of Close Reading Clues: Students analyze multiple realistic documents that require close reading, inference, and evidence-based reasoning. These include an email, a text message, a solar light repair work order, a list, a community bulletin board, and a senior citizen online message board. Each clue provides subtle details that help students eliminate suspects and build a strong case.

➡️ "Who Destroyed The Snowman" Graphic Organizer: Students use this organizer to record evidence for and against each suspect. This helps them organize their thinking, track key details, and support their final conclusions with specific text evidence.

➡️ Teacher Answer Key: The detailed answer key explains how each clue supports or refutes the suspects. It includes clear reasoning and evidence references, making whole-class review simple and effective after students solve the mystery.

How The Christmas Close Reading Activity Works:

• Start by putting up the poster on your door to build anticipation as students enter the room. When students arrive, place them in small groups so they can work together to try to solve the mystery.
• Use the presentation slides to guide you through each element of the lesson. The slides will help you introduce the story and the evidence to each of the groups.
• Hand out all the evidence and the graphic organizer recording page to students and allow them time to make their predictions, draw inferences, and solve the mystery.
• Once each group has made their final prediction, use the presentation slides to reveal the culprit and go through each suspect to show the evidence of their innocence or guilt.

What Teachers Are Saying About This Christmas Close Reading Activity:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is the perfect resource to use in the holiday season. Students have to use so many reading strategies that we talk about in class, but hey are so engaged in the mystery that they do not grumble about it. It is so helpful to have this on hand to help fill that class time when you do not want to start a new unit.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ As usual, the variety of documents students have to read and the strategies they come up with to solve the mystery are great! VERY engaging resource like all your mysteries! Used it before the Christmas break : perfect! Keep them coming!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I love using these mystery inferencing activities with my 7th-grade ELA classes! We set up each of the pages in different stations around our large group instruction room, and students are always interested in getting to the answer! They are set up in a fun and engaging way!

Looking for the digital version? Click here.

If you like this resource, you'll also like this one:
→ Who Put Up The Holiday Lights? Reading Mystery

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