Earlier this week in the eighth grade literature class we read "The Case of the Missing Will" by Agatha Christie. In the middle of the story I ran over to my desk and scrawled "train luggage" and "lemon juice" on a sticky note. The next day I showed them my authentic little train suitcase, and then I told them that I had inconspicuously hidden a secret note somewhere in the room. They found it -- a wadded up piece of trash -- and then we lit a candle, put the note over the flame, and discovered the secret message written in lemon juice.
Yesterday we were reading "A Boy from Northfield" in the seventh grade literature class. The story describes Moody's mother coming home from her husband's funeral with a black thing over her face. I ran to my stash and pulled out my great aunt's mantilla and pulled it over my face so they could see what Moody's mother would have looked like. I left it on just for fun while we read more of the story. It's fun to read stories, but it's even more fun to reenact parts of them.