Mr Bones Quits: ESL Partner Speaking Mystery (B1–B2)

The science room skeleton is sitting in the head teacher's chair, wearing her glasses and a witch's hat, with a note: “I QUIT.” Four students say they were somewhere else at lunchtime. One of them is lying.

HOW IT WORKS

This is a partner speaking mystery for pairs. Student A has the four students' stories. Student B has the school's notices for that day and the caretaker's notes. Neither sheet solves the mystery alone: A has stories but no facts, and B has facts but no stories. Students keep their sheets secret, ask and answer questions in their own words, compare what they find out and check every story against the facts and find the one that can't be true. The answer is fixed and fully explained in the answer key.

LEVEL AND LANGUAGE

Written for English learners at CEFR B1–B2, grades 5–8. Language focus: past simple and past continuous (He was eating soup) and checking (That's true. / That can't be true because …).

PREP AND TIMING

Print page 2 for each Student A and page 3 for each Student B. Keep pages 1 and 4 for yourself. No cutting and no extra materials. About 25 minutes.

HALLOWEEN WITHOUT THE GORE

Spooky, funny and school-friendly: no blood, no violence, no frightening images.

WHAT'S INCLUDED (1 PDF, 4 pages, full colour)

• Page 1: Teacher notes (level, timing, language focus, steps, an early-finisher idea and support/challenge tips)
• Page 2: Student A sheet
• Page 3: Student B sheet
• Page 4: Answer key with the reasoning (teacher only)

LICENCE

Purchase grants the purchasing teacher permission to use this resource in their own teaching and to print copies for their own students.

You may not resell, redistribute, share the digital file with other teachers, or upload it to publicly accessible websites. Each teacher who wishes to use the resource must purchase their own copy.