⭐️ ‘Tis the season to be sleuthing…
Here’s a holiday mystery just for fun and perfect to do during the final class of December. I had fun creating this puzzling adventure. It includes colorful photos and videos of actual holiday events taking place this month all around the globe. The theft, in fact, is the only fictional piece in the activity! There really is a jewelry establishment in London called 77 Diamonds which designed the sparkling Christmas star shown here and listed it for $950,000!
| UPDATED for DECEMBER 2025 |
🎁 THE GAME
Notorious jewel thief, Tobias Grinn, AKA “The Grinch,” has stolen a diamond-studded Christmas star from a prestigious jewelry store in London. There’s a $100.000 reward for the recovery of the stolen jewel, and everyone’s after it. Student detectives, in search of clues, will “travel” around the world -via Google Earth– to unique holiday destinations.
The hunt may take up to 90 minutes! Students can “play” independently, in pairs, or in small groups. The object is to successfully determine the location of the stolen Christmas star and return it for the reward.
The activity requires careful reading, but if students are successful, at the end they’ll type in a password to “find” the star on a password-protected page.
🎁 GETTING STARTED
All students need is a device connected to the internet, preferably a laptop or iPad, and this notetaking sheet. The presentation utilizes the web version of Google Earth, and pictures and diagrams explain all students need to know about using the navigation tools and format, so they need no prior experience with Google Earth.
THIS LINK is all your students need to begin the activity. IMPORTANT: That link is all you need, but some districts may block it because you are not the owner. If you’d like to try to make a copy in your drive, follow the directions on the slides below (scroll through both slides). Then find it in your drive, click on the three dots to the right to SHARE, and change RESTRICTED to ANYONE WITH THE LINK can view. Copy that link to send a view-only link to students. Don’t try to attach the project; share a link. Note: If the link takes your students to a project page, have them hit SLIDESHOW at the top right. The TEACHER GUIDE and ANSWER KEY have already been sent to subscribers to the site. If you do not wish to subscribe, you can request the guide and key HERE.
If your students have been working hard and you want to send them off for the holidays with a smile, I think this will work well for you! Enjoy!
What can you add to our Holiday/ Seasonal page? If you haven’t checked it out, there are additional activities to do at this time of year, including a reading of the classic “Gift of the Magi,” a marble challenge based on Gingerbread Man Loose at Christmas, a 3-D Coded Snow Globe Project, and some unique writing /art activities. You can also find additional virtual scavenger hunts to use at other times of the year.
HI Donna,
Is there a reason why the link to make a copy isn’t working?
Hey, Cami. Try refreshing the page. I changed the link because the activity had to be updated. There was a broken link. If that doesn’t work, let me know!
It still says “Sorry unable to open the link at this time.”
I sent you an email with a new link!
Key not sending via email. Is there another way to receive it?
Dayna, I did try emailing you again. The next best way would be to join our Facebook group!
The link looks different to me, other than just some updated info. Last year when I used this it was a Google Slides presentation. This new link is in Google Earth. Is that correct?
That’s correct, Heather. In our Facebook group, I explained that the Google Earth project is just easier for me to update each year. I also think it makes for an easier “journey”- not having to go back and forth from slide deck to Google Earth. I hope it will still work out for you. If not, I think it would be easy to take screenshots and make a slide presentation. Let me know if I can help. Thanks for your question because you are probably not the only one wondering.
The DASHING THROUGH THE SNOW scavenger hunt is still a slide show. The main reason is that it includes very short video excerpts and you cannot crop YouTube videos in GE projects. So, that one will remain as a slide deck + links (for now).
I love the concept! For us, the clues are just too difficult I’m afraid. I’ve watched the first video thrice myself, and I still can’t find a word near the lighted trees in the seesaw scene, or swans kissing.
Thank you for your comment. Yes, the hunt is meant to be somewhat challenging. The teacher guide provides all the information needed for teachers to guide their students if they get stumped. You. might like to try the DASHING THROUGH THE SNOW virtual hunt. It may not be quite as tricky.
Hello,
I am so excited to do this with my students. When I open it I do not see the copy options in the 3 dots or anywhere so I can share it with my students. Any guidance is appreciated.
Thank you so much for sharing this and for your time on this matter.
Hi, Andrea, and thanks for this comment. I’m going to send an update to all subscribers, but I’ll answer here with the hope that it will help someone else. Google Earth has changed. Go to FILE, Duplicate Project, and it will make a copy in your drive. From there, use the three dots to the right of your file to share a view-only copy with your students. I hope this helps!