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Mystery Game Builds Community at Adena, Freedom

Mystery Game Builds Community at Adena, Freedom

The verdict is in for a fun twist on a family favorite board game introduced at both Adena and Freedom elementary schools the week of Halloween. “It really was a great way to bring the entire building together,” said Adena teacher Brittany Slaven, reflecting on her own class’s experience with “Schoolhouse Clue.” The week-long mystery game was designed with one driving purpose: community building.

“Climate and culture are what make a strong school community, so this is always something top of mind,” said Freedom Principal Shelly Kerr, who stumbled upon the pre-built game at the recommendation of one of her teachers in a similar manner as Adena Principal Jordan Eisenhard. From there, both of their teams went to work on bringing it to life and fitting it into the school day in a way that created minimal disruption to daily instruction. 

“Being able to re-ground ourselves as a building in something engaging and unifying like this was the true value,” said Freedom teacher leader Corbin Smith, who took the lead at Freedom on customizing and organizing the provided scripts, graphics and videos. 

The whole game centered around an after school hours event reported by the school’s “night butler,” whose “butler’s code” swears him to secrecy, but allows him to share daily clues or riddles. Complete with staff “suspects,” each clue helped students and staff rule out a different person, place or thing. Classes were challenged to work together during their morning meeting time to solve each riddle and ultimately submit their “story” for what happened that night. 

“Their answers were absolutely hysterical,” said Kerr, who challenged Freedom students to use their creativity in their final narrative. The class with the closest guess and the most creative response was named the final winner. But all students were awarded apple cider and a rice krispie treat, both of which tied into the solved mystery. 

Kerr gauged enthusiasm for the game by the countless and unprompted emails and hallway conversations she had with both staff and students throughout the week. Adena instructional aide Emily Miller cited this evidence of students’ engagement when the familiar sound would come over the loudspeaker each day in the cafeteria, signaling the reveal of another answer. “Nearly all the students would clap to the beat of the music in anticipation of the answers!” she said. 

Slaven added that students and staff, alike, took a lot of interest in solving the mystery, even discussing the clues during lunch in both the cafeteria and staff lounge.

Smith emphasized how the activity served as a reprieve and a reward of sorts for all the change and hard work that has come with implementing the new curriculum this year. “This really gave everyone an opportunity to take a little break during the week to have fun and be silly,” Smith said. "Each of our 'episodes' really felt like a reward for everyone each day and became something everyone looked forward to."

Besides just community building, as a math teacher, Slaven also appreciated the opportunity to practice problem-solving skills. “It brought some great thinking and discussions to my classroom,” she said. 

“The conversations and the problem-solving the kids worked through was amazing to listen to,” Kerr added.

And when asked if it was on the plan to repeat the game next school year, it was a resounding “yes!” from both principals.