Juego de speaking 3 · The Museum Theft (B1, para adolescentes)
Misterio para clase. Nivel B1, pensado para adolescentes. Ha desaparecido un cuadro de un museo pequeño, y lo raro es cuál: en la misma sala había tres que valen diez veces más y nadie los tocó. Aquí no se trata de pillar a quien miente, sino de montar la línea de tiempo de una noche con un registro de cámaras que tiene un agujero de cuarenta y cinco minutos.
Se imprime y ya está. Cuatro dosieres distintos (uno por equipo), la línea de tiempo y el informe final para todos. Gratis.
Ajusta el juego a tu grupo
Dime cuántos alumnos vas a tener y te recalculo el montaje: cuántos grupos, qué quitar, cuánto dura y qué tienes que imprimir exactamente, con las copias de cada cosa.
The case
Casa Verde Museum. Tuesday, ten to eight in the morning. The director opens the museum and The Blue Door, a painting by Amelia Rúa, is not on the wall of Room 3. The frame is on the floor, face up and undamaged. Nothing else has been touched.
The painting is worth about €4,000. In the same room there are three paintings worth more than ten times that. Nobody went near them.
You are four investigation teams. Each team has different access to the case. Nobody has the whole file, and you will not get it: you have to ask.
| STEP | WHAT TO DO |
|---|---|
| 1. Read your file | Only your team’s. Everything in it is true. |
| 2. Fill in what you can | Use the timeline. Most of your boxes will be empty. |
| 3. Interview the other teams | You can tell them. You cannot show them. |
| 4. Build the timeline together | From eight in the evening to eight in the morning. Every line must be explained. |
| 5. Explain the gap | For forty-five minutes there are no cameras. Say exactly why, and who did it. |
| 6. Write the report | One paragraph per team. Then read it out loud. |
The rules
· You are not asked who painted a copy. You are asked who took the painting on Tuesday night, and why.
· Two people in this case are not telling the whole truth. Only one of them took the painting.
· Every conclusion needs a document behind it. I think is not enough: say which log, which photo, which letter.
· You can only speak. No showing papers.
Suggested timing: 10 min reading · 20 min interviewing · 10 min timeline · 10 min report and reading.
The museum
| ROOM | CAMERA | WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW |
|---|---|---|
| Room 1 — entrance and shop | Camera 1 | The main door. Everybody has to cross this room. |
| Room 2 — 19th century | Camera 2 | |
| Room 3 — modern art | None | The Blue Door was here. The camera broke in June and was never repaired. |
| Room 4 — temporary exhibitions | Camera 3 | |
| The office and the store room | None | The camera system is controlled from here. There is a side door to the street. |
The four files — cut them out, one per team
Importante: cada equipo recibe SOLO su hoja.
File 1 — TECHNICAL TEAM (cameras and alarm)
| TIME | CAMERA | WHAT IT SHOWS |
|---|---|---|
| 20:00 | 1 | The last visitors leave. |
| 20:15 | 1 | Nuria López leaves through the main door. |
| 20:40 | 2 | Bruno Castro walks through Room 2. Normal round. |
| 21:10 | 3 | Bruno walks through Room 4. Normal round. |
| 21:30 | 1 | Somebody crosses Room 1 towards Room 3. The image is very dark. You can see a stick or an umbrella. |
| 21:35 – 22:20 | — | Nothing. All three cameras are off. |
| 22:20 | 2 | Bruno walks through Room 2, very quickly. |
| 22:45 | 1 | Bruno leaves through the main door and locks it. |
| 07:50 | 1 | Nuria opens the museum. |
| ALARM LOG | CODE | NOTE |
|---|---|---|
| 20:15 — ON | 4471 | Nuria López. |
| 21:28 — OFF | 2290 | This code belonged to Óscar Ferreiro, curator until 2024. It should have been cancelled when he retired. |
| 22:50 — ON | 8103 | Bruno Castro. |
| Nothing else until 07:50 |
Technical note: the cameras can only be switched off from inside the office. There is no remote control and no app.
File 2 — INTERVIEW TEAM (what the people say)
| WHO | WHAT THEY SAY |
|---|---|
| Nuria López, director | “I left at quarter past eight and I set the alarm. I spent the whole evening at my sister’s house.” |
| Bruno Castro, night guard | “I did my rounds. At about half past nine I started to feel ill, a terrible headache, and I sat down in the office for a while. Maybe forty minutes. Nothing happened.” |
| Óscar Ferreiro, retired curator | “I haven’t set foot in that museum since I retired. And I have nothing to say about that painting.” |
| Sara Méndez, restorer | “For three weeks I’ve been asking to examine The Blue Door properly. Nobody ever answered me.” |
| Leo, intern | “I photograph everything for the website. I photographed Room 3 in July.” |
| Mrs Tomé, neighbour | “On Monday night, at about ten, I saw a man come out of the side door with something flat under his arm, wrapped in a blanket. He walked slowly. He had a walking stick.” |
File 3 — MUSEUM TEAM (keys, visitors, staff)
| DOCUMENT | WHAT IT SAYS |
|---|---|
| Visitor book | Óscar Ferreiro visited four times last month. He signed his own name every time. |
| Keys to the side door | There are two copies. One is in the office. The other was never returned when Óscar Ferreiro retired. |
| Staff file, Bruno Castro | Two written warnings this year. Both for the same thing: sleeping while on duty. A third one means he loses the job. |
| Óscar Ferreiro, medical note (public) | He has walked with a stick since an operation in 2023. |
| The frame | Left on the floor, face up, not broken. Somebody took the canvas out slowly and carefully. |
| The other paintings in Room 3 | Three of them are worth more than €40,000 each. None of them was touched. |
File 4 — ART TEAM (the painting itself)
| DOCUMENT | WHAT IT SAYS |
|---|---|
| Museum catalogue, 2019 | Photo of The Blue Door when it was bought. In the background, behind the door, there is a tree. |
| Leo’s photo of Room 3, July | The same painting on the same wall. In the background, behind the door, there is a chimney. There is no tree. |
| Letter in the director’s drawer | Dated three weeks ago, from Óscar Ferreiro: “The Blue Door in Room 3 is not the painting I bought in 2019. Please answer me.” The envelope has not been opened. |
| Emails from Sara Méndez | Three emails asking to examine the painting. One answer from Nuria López: “There is no budget for that this year.” |
| Insurance value | The Blue Door: €4,000. It is the cheapest painting in Room 3. |
The timeline — fill it in together
| TIME | WHAT HAPPENED | HOW DO YOU KNOW? (which document) |
|---|---|---|
| 20:00 | ||
| 20:15 | ||
| 20:40 | ||
| 21:10 | ||
| 21:28 | ||
| 21:30 | ||
| 21:35 | ||
| about 22:00 | ||
| 22:20 | ||
| 22:45 | ||
| 22:50 | ||
| 07:50 |
The two questions that decide the case
1. Who switched the cameras off at 21:35, and why? Remember: it can only be done from the office.
_______________________________________________________________
2. Who took the painting, and why that one and not a more expensive one?
_______________________________________________________________
The police report — one paragraph per team
Write it in the past. Use times. Say which document proves each thing.
| TEAM | YOUR PARAGRAPH STARTS LIKE THIS |
|---|---|
| Technical | At 21:28 the alarm was switched off with code… |
| Interview | Three people gave us information that did not match. The first was… |
| Museum | The person who took the painting was able to get in because… |
| Art | The painting on the wall in July was not the painting the museum bought in 2019, because… |
B1 language support
| FUNCTION | USEFUL LANGUAGE |
|---|---|
| Telling the story | At half past nine he was doing his round. · While the cameras were off, somebody… · After that, he left. |
| Times and order | By ten o’clock the painting had gone. · Twenty minutes later… · Just before the alarm went off… |
| Deduction | He must have had a key. · She can’t have been there, because… · It might have been… |
| Reporting what another team told you | They said that the alarm was off. · The art team told us the painting was different. · According to their file… |
| Disagreeing with evidence | That doesn’t explain the stick. · But the cameras can only be switched off from the office. · Then why didn’t he take the expensive ones? |
| Concluding | So the only person who could… · That’s why we think… · Everything points to… |
Your challenge: use must have or can’t have twice, and quote a document three times (according to…).
Para el profe
Cómo montarlo
Cuatro equipos, un archivo cada uno, y la regla de siempre: se cuenta, no se enseña. La línea de tiempo y el informe sí van para todos. Este es más largo que el del hámster: con una hora de clase va justo, y con dos sesiones sale redondo (una para investigar, otra para el informe y el debate final).
La solución
Se lo llevó Óscar Ferreiro, el conservador jubilado. Y lo que se llevó era una copia. El cuadro que colgaba en la sala 3 no era el que el museo compró en 2019: alguien lo había cambiado. Óscar se dio cuenta, escribió a la directora, nadie le abrió la carta, y se lo llevó para poder demostrarlo.
| PASO | EL RAZONAMIENTO |
|---|---|
| 1 | Se llevaron el barato. Al lado había tres de más de 40.000 € sin tocar. No iba de dinero: el cuadro importaba por otra cosa. |
| 2 | La alarma se apagó a las 21:28 con el código 2290, que era el de Óscar y que nadie canceló cuando se jubiló. |
| 3 | La llave de la puerta lateral nunca la devolvió. |
| 4 | A las 21:30 la cámara 1 graba a alguien con un bastón, y Óscar anda con bastón desde 2023. La vecina ve salir por la puerta lateral, sobre las diez, a un hombre con bastón y algo plano envuelto en una manta. |
| 5 | Dijo que no había pisado el museo desde que se jubiló, y el libro de visitas dice que fue cuatro veces el mes pasado, firmando con su nombre. Ahí se cae solo. |
| 6 | El marco quedó en el suelo, boca arriba y sin romper. Eso no lo hace un ladrón con prisa: lo hace alguien que ha descolgado cuadros toda su vida. |
| 7 | La prueba de la copia: en la foto del catálogo de 2019, detrás de la puerta hay un árbol. En la foto de Leo de julio, en el mismo sitio, hay una chimenea. Y la carta sin abrir, y los tres correos de la restauradora sin respuesta. |
El agujero de las cámaras: es OTRA historia
Aquí está la gracia del caso. Las cámaras se apagaron a las 21:35, cinco minutos después de que entrara Óscar, y la tentación es pensar que las apagó él. No pudo: solo se apagan desde el despacho, y él estaba entrando por la sala 1 camino de la sala 3.
Las apagó Bruno, el vigilante, porque se iba a dormir y lleva dos avisos por escrito por quedarse dormido: al tercero se queda sin trabajo. Su dolor de cabeza es mentira. Bruno miente, y es inocente del robo. Sin querer, le dio a Óscar cuarenta y cinco minutos de cobertura.
Es el mejor momento de la clase: obliga a aceptar que dos cosas sospechosas de la misma noche pueden no tener nada que ver la una con la otra. Casi todos los grupos las unen. Cuando lo hagan, basta preguntar: and how did Óscar switch the cameras off from Room 1?
Lo que queda abierto a propósito
Quién cambió el cuadro no se sabe, y no se pide. Las sospechas apuntan a la dirección (no abrió la carta, no dio presupuesto para la restauración), pero no hay prueba, y eso también se aprende: no todo se cierra. Si sobra clase, sale un debate buenísimo: should Óscar go to prison? He stole something. But he stole a fake, and he was right. Da para veinte minutos en inglés.
Qué evaluar
Si preguntan y escuchan, si citan el documento en vez de opinar, si usan must have / can’t have, y sobre todo si separan las dos historias en vez de meterlo todo en una. Esa última es la casilla que de verdad mide si han razonado.
Variantes
· Dos equipos: junta el 1+3 y el 2+4.
· Más fácil: di desde el principio que hay dos personas mintiendo y solo una culpable.
· Más difícil: quita la foto de Leo. Entonces la copia solo se deduce de la carta, y cuesta bastante más.
· B2: añade una rueda de prensa final: un equipo hace de periodistas y pregunta sin piedad.
· Para adultos: cambia el museo por una empresa y el cuadro por un informe que desaparece del servidor. La estructura aguanta igual.