Students at Sailorway Middle School in Vermilion, OH were finishing the novel, The Westing Game, in their language arts classes. To add a twist of excitement, the students were invited to take part in a scavenger hunt at South Street Elementary School with Mr. Hayne.
However, the students actually thought they were going to the reading of a will because Otis Amber, one of the characters from the novel, hand delivered letters to each of their classes.
One student from each of the 8 classes was selected to read the Office of Estates and Wills' letter to their class.
Little did the students know, clues had already been set up at South Street Elementary School for their surprise scavenger hunt. Each clue had an item such as the one shown below that corresponded to a character in the book, The Westing Game. There were 15 clues and character items, but there were 16 possible suspects. Therefore, the one character that was missing a clue was guilty of the crime. It was up to the students to solve the clues and identify which character went with each clue. The clues directly related to The Westing Game.
Students arrived to South Street Elementary School at their scheduled time to witness their counselor, Mrs. Mattmuller, get locked in a room. Upon learning this, students were directed to Room B to watch a video from the suspect and receive directions to play the game that will save their teacher (Hint: Mr. Hayne is dressed up as the suspect).
Students were divided into 5 teams (blue, red, yellow, purple, and green) and given a case file with character bios and their first clue.
Students were instructed to keep one hand on their team's rope at all times. They were given 2 flashlights and sent into the dark school to locate objects that answer their clues.
When a team solved all 15 clues, they met up with Mr. Hayne to identify who they think was the suspect. Then, they were given the combination to unlock the character bios with photographs, so students could see the picture of who did it. They found out that some of the characters look familiar because the photos were switched with staff members from Sailorway Middle School.
The team then went to find Dr. Denton Deere, to accuse him of locking up their teacher. Upon doing this, the students received a key to unlock the door where Mrs. Mattmuller was locked inside.
The classes met back in Room B to discuss and evaluate the Scavenger Hunt before heading back to SMS.