3/25/2021-Today, we eased our way back into classes! We played a fun book game called Shelf Life. I challenged the students to make up they own to play at home. If they make up their own and bring them back to class, we might have a chance to play those toward the end of the school year! I also showed the students how to make scratch-off clues. We used these in our last room escape and they are surprisingly easy to make. They would be fun to make for an at-home room escape game. We'll start reading The Multiplying Mysteries of the Mount Ten, so bring your copy to class!

3/11/2021-We finished up our room escape and it was a blast! This was probably the best room escape yet! Everyone should have come home with an invisible pen and the winners of the room escape came home with the prize Dr. Rowe loves to give out---books, of course! Enjoy your spring break!

3/4/2021-We started our room escape for Charlie & Frog! We had such a great time. One group is close to finishing, but I think everyone will be finished by next week! When we return from Spring Break, we'll begin the Multiplying Mysteries of Mount Ten. Unfortunately, I think this will be our last book for the year and we won't make it to the Ambrose Deception. We'll still have a ton of fun with MM & the Ambrose Deception will be a great way to kick off your summer reading!

2/25/2021-Today, everyone brainstormed some ideas of what would make good room escape puzzles! We also learned about concrete and abstract nouns. We'll do our Charlie and Frog Room Escape next week, so finish the book if you haven't already. Make sure you know as much ASL as you possibly can!

2/18/2021-VIRTUAL CLASS-Go ahead and finish reading Charlie and Frog!! When we return we'll learn a few more little things, but our room escape will be 3/4 and 3/11, so make sure you have finished reading by then! You'll want to know everything in the story by that point so you can solve the puzzles! Practice your finger spelling at home and play an ASL game to see if you can read these words as they are signed for you. You can make the speed faster or slower! If you master the first game, try a more challenging second game! Finally, learn about Helen Keller, who was blind and deaf.

2/11/2021-We're still on our journey of Charlie & Frog and things are getting exciting! We worked some more on sign language and even celebrated the upcoming holiday (Valentine's) with some sign language. For this week, please read 123-190. Continue to practice your finger spelling (you'll need it for our Room Escape!).

2/4/2021- Today we practiced our finger spelling a bit more and worked on some detective vocabulary. We played a fun game that combined both and we solved a finger-spelling code! For this week, please read 62-122.

1/28/2021-We read the first few chapters of Charlie and Frog today and we learned the ASL alphabet! We will definitely need to know the ASL alphabet for our next Room Escape, so be practicing that! By the end of class, everyone could sign his or her own name. Practice your ASL alphabet and maybe learn a few new signs to share with us, too! Try to read to page 62 for this week and see if your predictions we made in class come true!

1/21/2021-We finished up the Sisters Grimm room escape and congratulate the following winners: Gretchen, Violet, Julie, & Serafina! We also learned about a Magic Square and worked on a Sisters Grimm Magic Square. Next week, we'll start reading Charlie and Frog, so if you have that book, please bring it to class! I'm excited to start a new book with everyone!

1/14/2021-It was our first day back today! We had some new faces to add to our little detective agency and we were so glad to have them with use today! Most everyone was close to finishing or had already finished The Sisters Grimm, so we started our room escape for this book. There are two groups close to completion, but we'll continue working on this one next week! Hopefully, you all received my email over the break about our next three books! We'll start reading Charlie and Frog the last week in January!

If you loved The Sisters Grimm (like I do), there are 10 books in the entire series, so feel free to keep reading!

12/10-Everyone's maps were WONDERFUL! What creativity! We continued to work on our fairy tale maps yesterday and some students began writing directions for how to navigate the maps. I encouraged them to use cardinal directions (including intermediate) and we'll keeping working on this for next week. We'll also be doing a new Einstein puzzle next week! Continue to read The Sisters' Grimm until page 59-110 (if you want to read ahead---keep on going!).

DECEMBER 3rd- VIRTUAL CLASS- Hey sleuthers! Today will be a virtual, asynchronous class, which means you can work on these activities and have them ready to go when we return to class (hopefully, that will be next week)! This week, we're going to start reading The Sisters Grimm (which is one of my absolute favorite books)! I would love for you to read page 1-58. I would also like for you to sketch out a fairy tale world map. You can see some examples below. It should be fully colored and have lots of detail included. Think about what type of house each character would live in and make sure it is appropriate (Rapunzel wouldn't live in anything other than a tower for instance). Then, make sure you label those houses on your map. Also include a compass rose! Your fairy tale map can be very imaginative or it can be more modern and realistic. See some of the examples below. Make them AWESOME!

11/19-We finished the room escape! Everyone successfully "escaped," even though one group was down to the second! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and I look forward to reading The Sisters Grimm with you when we return. The Sisters Grimm is a series, so we'll be reading the first in the series. Also, I'll be teaching a virtual book club on the Sisters Grimm in January, so if you love it as much as I do, I hope you'll consider joining us!

11/12-We started our room escape for The Real McCoys book! Everyone is FLYING through this room escape! They are so, so smart (I'm going to have to make harder puzzles!). Only a few have finished reading The Real McCoys and that's o.k. It isn't required to complete the room escape, but there are certain puzzles that will be significantly more challenging if students haven't read it. We'll keep working on this next week as well and then when we return from break, we will read one of my favorite books---The Sisters Grimm; Fairy Tale Detectives!

11/5-Today, we learned about an Einstein puzzle, which is a type of logic puzzle rumored to be created by Albert Einstein. We also continued our discussion of DNA evidence by listing types of DNA evidence and then drawing pictures of a scene/location to show multiple types of DNA evidence. If you would like to do a fun coloring page about DNA, you can print it off and color at home. I am also challenging students to come up with their own Einstein puzzles this week! Try to stump Dr. Rowe!

10/29-We continued our discussion of DNA by learning about the specifics of the double helix. We learned that Adenine & Thymine are always buddies, just like Guanine & Cytosine are always buddies. It doesn't matter who is first in the pair, but they have to remain in those pair buddies! They cannot switch up! We also made a model of the double helix using beads and pipe cleaners. Continue reading The Real McCoys--this week, read chapters 6-8.

10/22-Today, we learned about DNA evidence in the form of fingerprints! We discussed latent and patent fingerprints. Then we used our pencils and tape to collect and examine our own fingerprints. We started a new book (The Real McCoys) and read the first two chapters. Students need to read chapters 1-5 for next week. We finished up our class with a rousing game of Eliminators!

10/8- Yesterday, we finished up our Sherlock room escape! Almost all the groups were able to escape the room and complete the puzzles. Winners were awarded book prizes! We'll have another room escape when we finish reading The Real McCoys. We'll start that book when we come back from Fall Break.

10/1- Today, we started our room escape for Sherlock! There are a series of puzzles and clues and students have to work with their detective partners to figure out the clues. Most groups are about halfway finished with the room escape. We'll finish it up next week, which will be the perfect ending before fall break! When we return from fall break, we'll begin reading The Real McCoys!

9/24-Recap: Yesterday, we dove into Sherlock's love of chemistry and performed some scientific experiments. It was fun to see the various reactions between the substances and liquids (check Instagram @drrowereads to see more photos). For this week, students should read to page 101. We'll be finishing up Sherlock before fall break. The next two weeks will be a fun room escape based on the things we know about Sherlock.

9/17-Recap: Today, I read the first chapter of Sherlock aloud to the class. Most students had already read it, so it was a repeat for some! We got our Sherlock brains working after that and completed a logic puzzle to determine which party guest brought certain gifts and which color balloon those party guest took home. Then we played several rounds of Sherlock Eliminators. The students are learning how to give appropriate clues to their classmates. For this week, students should try and read to page 57.

9/10-Recap: Everyone started his or her code book. Bring these back to class each week as we may add to them throughout the year. This week, we start reading our Sherlock book. We discussed how the format of this book is laid out and how to read it. Students should read pg. 1-33 before Thursday. For this week's challenge, students should make a graphic novel panel with Sherlock and one other character from the book. Sherlock should be saying something in code (we started this in class) and the other character should respond in code (the same or different code is fine). Make it colorful! Can't wait to see what all those sleuths can do! As a reminder, this is a noncredit course, so it is up to you how much of the assignments you complete!

9/3-Recap: We reviewed all the codes we have learned thus far! We also learned a new code. I am challenging all the students to make up their own code this week and bring it in to share next week. We learned a really fun game called Eliminators. We had to eliminate suspects based on clues. It was very fun and the students were great at identifying the culprit! We're starting our Sherlock book next week, so bring that as well. We will talk a bit about the format.

8/27-Recap: It was a fun day yesterday! We learned four new codes (Reverse, Number, Block, and Pig Pen) and the students LOVED writing their names with these codes. Next week, we'll organize our codes into a code book (very fun!) and practice writing more codes. We'll also play a few mystery games. Make sure to follow on Instagram (@drrowereads) to see our class in action!

8/20 Recap: Yesterday, we discussed what a detective does. The kids were great at coming up with words to identify and describe detectives! We tried writing a few sentences about detectives as well. After that, we played a vocabulary game to learn some specific words about sleuthing! Make sure to follow on Instagram (@drrowereads) to see our class in action!