As part of my 5th/6th grade winter camp, I am doing a 20 minute mini lesson about question words (Who, what, when, where, why and how) and how they relate to solving a crime.

The students already are familar with the words (hence why I am only spending 20 minutes on it) but I am having a difficult time finding an appropriate activity.

I thought about giving the students a little mystery and just having them read identify Who the criminal is, how they commited the crime, etc. but I can't find anything the appropriate length (everything I am finding is WAY too long for 20 minutes).

Any ideas on materials or suggestions would be appreciated. I am losing my creative thinking abilities.

I like the idea above and I'd probably use it.

Another way is to give them a paper with 5 choices for each of the W questions.

Suspects: Brad Pitt
               Kim Soo Hyun
               Baro
               Taemin
               G.D

Weapon:  knife
               gun
               spoon
               fork
               magic

Time: 5 a.m
          lunch time
         dinner time
         midnight
         8 p.m

Room: kitchen
           living room
           teachers' room
           bedroom
           bathroom

Why?: because she stole his cookies.
          because she wanted his autograph.
          because he is crazy.
          because she would not date him.
          because she liked Justin Bieber more than him.

How?: by car
          by foot
          by bus
          by the subway
          by taxi

The students narrow down the answers by asking questions to other students.

Example questions: Who killed Teacher in her dream? What did they kill her with? When did it happen? Where did it happen? Why did they kill her? How did they escape?

You give every student a response card. This is where it becomes work for you. The response cards are all different. You will not tell them the answer but you will give them elimination answers.

An example card:

Baro did not kill her in her dream.
He did not use a knife.
It was not at lunch time.
It was not in the bedroom.
He did not escape by the subway.

The students go around asking questions to other students to eliminate answers. When they narrow them all down to one answer for each then they are finished. If you want then you can have them write the answer in a designated response pattern.
Ex: G.D killed her with a knife, in the kitchen, because she ate his cookies and he escaped by foot.