LEARNING THROUGH PLAY
September 2026
When Learning Starts With a Mystery
From mystery suitcases to unexpected classroom clues, simple provocations invite children to wonder, predict, question, and take ownership of their learning.
I have a confession: I love confusing my students a little.
Not actually confusing them just enough to make them desperately want to know what I’m up to.
One of my favorite ways to start a new inquiry is to walk into the classroom with something unexpected and say absolutely nothing about it.
This time, it was a suitcase.
Inside were different objects connected to the learning we were about to begin. But of course, I wasn’t going to tell them that.
Instead, I started taking things out.
Immediately, the questions started.
Why do you have that?
What’s inside?
Is this about food?
Are we going somewhere?
And then came my favorite part: the theories.
Some made perfect sense. Some were completely unexpected. And some made absolutely no sense at all which, with five- and six-year-olds, is usually where the fun is.
I could have simply told them what our new unit was about.
Instead, they were observing, making connections, listening to each other, changing their minds and trying to solve the mystery.
Before I had even “started the lesson,” they were already learning.
That’s why I keep coming back to provocations like this.
I don’t always want to give children the answer first.
Sometimes I just want to give them enough to make them want to find it.
Not actually confusing them just enough to make them desperately want to know what I’m up to.
One of my favorite ways to start a new inquiry is to walk into the classroom with something unexpected and say absolutely nothing about it.
This time, it was a suitcase.
Inside were different objects connected to the learning we were about to begin. But of course, I wasn’t going to tell them that.
Instead, I started taking things out.
Immediately, the questions started.
Why do you have that?
What’s inside?
Is this about food?
Are we going somewhere?
And then came my favorite part: the theories.
Some made perfect sense. Some were completely unexpected. And some made absolutely no sense at all which, with five- and six-year-olds, is usually where the fun is.
I could have simply told them what our new unit was about.
Instead, they were observing, making connections, listening to each other, changing their minds and trying to solve the mystery.
Before I had even “started the lesson,” they were already learning.
That’s why I keep coming back to provocations like this.
I don’t always want to give children the answer first.
Sometimes I just want to give them enough to make them want to find it.