Media Detectives: Kids become media literate by playing these fun games

All of our free 4 Media Detective games are student-led, inquiry-based, fun and very interactive – and can be completed in 2 classroom periods at most. They were created by kids for kids.

Each one is based on one of these 4 beloved children’s books

Click Clack Moo Cows That Type

Elephant & Piggie

The 3 Little Pigs

The Day the Crayons Quit

Click on any collage to that game to download the one(s) best for your students.

Please email DK@InquiringMindsInstitute.org if you wish to arrange a free consultation.

Main benefits:

1. Builds awareness of bias and manipulation present in some media

2. Enhances critical thinking – Engages students in analyzing sources, identifying biases, and constructing well-reasoned conclusions.

3. Promotes civic awareness – Encourages students to recognize multiple perspectives and practice democratic discourse.

4. Fosters collaboration – Builds a cooperative learning environment where students work together as investigators and sources.

5. Supports standards-based learning – Aligns with inquiry-based learning frameworks to help teachers meet curriculum goals.

6. Creates an engaging classroom – Uses role-play and interactive problem-solving to make learning dynamic and memorable.

Time: 45 min. Ideally, we should have forty five minutes to play out the game. The Inquiring Minds team views this as a good activity to work on after lunch (as an energizer for the afternoon’s curriculum). 

What’s needed: 

Provided by Inquiring Minds:

• Teacher protocol

• Slideshow to start off the game (includes a read aloud of the book and explains media literacy).

• Subfolder with PDFs including:

  • secret witness identity cards

  • dossiers

    • examples of media created by our team including facts and eyewitness testimonies (may be printed out or viewed on tablets).

Provided by educator:

• Detective Learning Wall - super easy to make

• Pencils notepads and/or post its for detectives to write notes to add to their Learning Wall

  optional:

• A copy of Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type is helpful for reference for clues.

• Costumes are both helpful and fun.

Here’s a link to the video we made of kids playing Click Clack Moo Cows That Type in a Harlem 5th grade classroom.

A slide show comes with each of the games. This includes a read aloud of the book plus questions that are always good to consider, and a primer on media literacy.

As an example, here are 2 slides from the slideshow for the Media Detective game for Click Clack Moo Cows That Type