I think everyone, teachers and students alike, feels more or less murderous in September, especially on Mondays. So what can we do? Absolutely: bring proper crime to the classroom, have fun and relieve the negative feelings! I want to share some of the mystery-solving activities I've been working with for a surprisingly long time, and they're still loved by my students.

It was in a small bookshop in Manchester where I noticed a book which immediately caught my eye: I Didn't Do My Homework Because by Davide Cali and illustrated by Benjamin Chaud. The book is basically a list of perfectly illustrated, funny, weird, amazingly impossible excuses a student could use... but they usually don't. Unless I, as a teacher, make them to :)

And so, we're here at the end of the school year, our courses are ending, we're moving on, time to say goodbye and so on and so forth. We're handing out the certificates and then we have to do something to kill the time.