Spies, Secret Codes, and 5th Graders...Oh, My!

Fifth grade has been serving as spies conveying coded messages to teachers in our building. In conjunction with our American Revolution study, we learned about the Culper Spy Ring. This spy ring--the first successful espionage ring in America--operated out of Long Island to aid George Washington in identifying British maneuvers, and ultimately helped to win the revolution. To extend our lesson, fifth graders wrote secret messages in code, similar to the coding used by the Culper spies, for a few teachers. The teachers had to decipher our messages by studying a series of numbers. Of course, these wonderful teachers enriched our lesson even more by starting their own decoding project with our class. For the last week, 5th graders have received clues in code themselves. They are now engaged in solving the mystery of their secret "admirers." Will they be successful?