Elementary Math Mystery Worksheets

Teaching math to disengaged elementary students is tough!

That’s Math Mysteries is the way to go. Kids love adventure and solving mysteries and it’s actually a lot easier than you think.

The following are some ideas for creating Math Mysteries to foster mathematical thinking:

Math Detective Story: Create a short mystery story that involves math problems. The story could involve characters solving math problems to unlock clues or solve a mystery. For example, “You have been nominated as Chief Detective and your brief is to crack the code to the disappearance of the school bus!” n

Math Scavenger Hunt: Set up a scavenger hunt with math problems as clues. Each clue should lead the students closer to solving the mystery. Kid can either work individually, with a partner or small group of problem solvers!

Missing Number Mystery: Provide a sequence of numbers with one or more missing. Ask the students to figure out the missing numbers based on the pattern. For example, “2, 4, __, 8, 10, __, 14.” The missing numbers are 6 and 12.

‘Guess Who I Am’ Math Puzzles: I am a three-digit number, I am odd and my tens digit is double my ones digit…Guess who I am?

Unscrambling Codes: Provide a scrambled word, sentence or message with a key, eg: A = 3, B = 7, C Kids love to solve scrambled messages!

Color by Code Mystery: Say no more…color by code and kids is always a winner.

Who Dunnit? Create a brief for your detective students to solve. Your brief should be an outline of the mystery case, the detective’s task, consist of a decoding sheet for them to crack the code.

Math Word Problems: Create fun math word problems that provide clues to solving the mystery. Include addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Kids practice key math skills and solve a mystery at the same time!