Spy School

As a culminating activity for our Cold War Unit, I created Spy School in my classroom. The amazing Hope King of http://www.elementaryshenanigans.com/ and a teacher at the Ron Clark Academy created this activity, and I adapted it for my curriculum.

The day before Spy School, I gave each student a set of directions (see picture above). Giving these little teasers is a wonderful way to get students excited about what will be happening in school the next day. I also posted this on our team's facebook page. You should have seen the parents' comments. Creating excitement is a simple way to motivate your students and their parents.

To enter the classroom, students are told to put on their sunglasses, are sworn to secrecy,  and they must pass the finger scan. (You can download this app for free. I used the one called mood finger scan. The kids loved this part.) Mission Impossible was playing in the background. The stage has now been set, and the kids were mesmerized by what they were experiencing and the lesson hadn't even started. 

In the room, the desks were put together in groups of 4. I had hung blue yarn from the ceiling and tied it to desks and chairs to have the effect of lasers. The black lights helped create this effect. Next year, I will add white yarn too. In some areas of the room you could not see the "lasers." To move around the room, students had to duck and crawl to make it safely to their area.

At each set of desks there were different activities. Students were given flashlights to help see their papers. 

At one of the stations students were given the book, The Dark Games. This book provides details about espionage throughout history. We focused on the chapter about The Cold War. Students were fascinated by the information. After reading and discussing, students were given a copy of one page from the book. There they created blackout poetry. Here students draw a box around words that grab their attention. When you read only the words in the box, it creates a poem. Students then color a picture over the remaining words. 

At four stations, I placed activities I downloaded from http://www.spymuseum.org/education-programs/educators/lesson-plans-activities/minute-by-minute-the-role-of-i/. Here students had to decipher primary source documents. 

At the last station, students created codes. I used http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/secret/secret.html to download cipher rings. Two years ago, I also had a station where kids had tablets and went to https://www.cia.gov/kids-page/games/break-the-code to practice decoding online. This past year, I did not have access to this technology due to state testing.

Putting each of the activities into confidential folders added a little more excitement and that didn't cost me anything. The only expense I had was to purchase yarn ($3 at Walmart) and I already had black lights ($10 for small table size at Hastings and Amazon). 

Our principal even got in on the action. You have to love when the excitement of a lesson spreads!

This is one of my all time favorite activities. The kids learn so much information and have a blast while doing so. You can't beat that!

Tricia