Can you keep a secret?

Something really strange started happening around The Hirsch Academy in December.
It seems that an animal is in trouble.
What kind of animal?
We don't know.
What kind of trouble?
We don't know.
Here's what we do know:
Agent O, a secret agent as yet unseen, has contacted the students in our class. He needs our help. We have got to uncover this mystery and help this animal. But how?

Ok, let me go back to the beginning:

Some of you have met the wonderful Julie Siler (Agent J, to us), our speech therapist. She is the mastermind behind this amazing language experience activity. She was originally contacted by the elusive Agent O and asked to enlist our students to help solve this mystery. Armed with spy names (Agent Bliveo aka Lightning, Agent A, Nightbird, Agent C, Agent Lightning Buck, Agent Pau, Agent Tari the Spy), badges, and our brilliant, deductive brains, we have been collecting pieces of the puzzle for the past three weeks. Yes, literally, a puzzle. Here's what we have so far:

Let's go back to a Wednesday afternoon, three weeks ago.
It was the strangest thing, I tell ya. The kids were out at recess, I was on my lunch break. I went downstairs to make some copies, turning off the lights and shutting the door as I left. Upon my return, not only were the lights turned back on, but the door was wide open. And so was our class mailbox, which contained letters for all seven of our secret agents! Letters from... the mysterious Agent O.

The letter:

Urgent: There are animals in danger, animals that need your help. You must locate the first puzzle piece by noon on Thursday, December 6th Julie Siler will report to your headquarters on Thursday at 10:15 with instructions. 12 puzzle pieces must be located at the Hirsch Academy to help the animal in danger. Work together.

 Secret Agents must:
1. Have Power and Control
2. follow directions
3.pay attention

Sure enough, at precisely 10:15 Thursday morning, Agent J arrived to lead us on our first clue hunt. Here are some shots (taken from a hidden spy cam, natch):

Nightbird reads a clue.

Agent A doesn't joke around when it comes to dressing the part.

Secret agents have to play it cool. Here we are trying to act casual, you know, like regular students. Nothing to see here, folks!

Agent Lightning Buck tries to "act casual" around Russ Carnes (Shelley's husband). Could he be working for Agent O?

Agent Pau bravely sips mystery juice to reveal a clue.

Agent Lightning Buck finds a clue in the star room!

Agent Tari the Spy displays the first piece of the puzzle.

The next week, it got even more mysterious!

Week two:

"Check your backpacks"

Wednesday morning the agents arrived from swimming to find two cryptic messages in the mailbox. A blank strip of paper with the words "Secret Message" at the top. Attached to the strip was a note,

"How to decode secret messages
Look at the computer"

Sure enough, there was a video loaded on the computer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSPH2CDzfG8
Invisible ink!!!
We went outside and held the paper over a flame for several minutes. Slowly, s-l-o-w-l-y...a message was revealed!
"CHECK YOUR BACKPACKS"!!
With power and control, the agents quietly slipped upstairs to find that the wily Agent O had somehow slipped a note into each backpack! Once again, he informed us that an animal was in trouble, and that we would have the chance to find two more clues on Thursday, with the help of Agent J.

This time, we split up into two groups. Unfortunately, a couple of agents were absent that morning, but the teams were able to forge on without them!

Group 1: Agents Tari the Spy and Nightbird:

Tari and Nightbird find a clue!

Hmmm...where can we find pictures of teachers?

We found a clue behind the teacher picture board!

Agent Tari reads the clue

There's a clue hidden somewhere...

Another piece!

 Group 2: Agent A, Agent Pau, Agent, Lightning Buck

An early clue

Hmm, this says the next clue will be found in the boy's bathroom by the tallest student. That's you, Agent Pau!

Sorry, Agent A...

...but you did get to find the piece!

This past week, Agent O didn't contact us until Thursday morning. He's been pretty tied up with the holiday shopping, I suppose.

Group 1:Agent Lightning Buck, Agent Tari, Agent Pau

Clue #1

Hmm, the next clue will be under a toy that looks like this?

Here it is!

There's something under here...

This puzzle will point to the next piece of the puzzle...

Aha!

Group 2: Agent A, Agent Tari, Agent C, Agent Bliveo

A baffling first clue.

What is this? A cross. Take away a letter to reveal the name of the person who has the second clue...Ross!

Agent C finds a jack-in-the-box clue.

One of these keys will open the next clue...

This symbol and the word "Sienna" is on the key!

We found it!

What you don't see in these pictures is the incredible amount of language work that Julie has integrated into each clue. It's pretty impressive.Stay tuned for further adventures of our secret agents. Julie, I mean Agent J, has a lot more cool language experience clues to throw our way before the mystery is solved!


A big, big, BIG thank you to all of you wonderful parents for the wonderful holiday gifts! Whether tomorrow finds you opening presents under the tree, chowing down on some Chinese food, or airing your grievances in the spirit of Festivus (for the rest of us), we hope you have a wonderful, restful winter break. We will see you all in 2013!!!