Hillspring Grade 3 Files: The Case of the Missing Principal: A Grade 3 Investigation

It started on an ordinary Tuesday at Hillspring International School.Principal Toad’s office door was open, his chair was pushed back, his favourite apple sat untouched on the desk — but Principal Toad himself was nowhere to be found.

Naturally, there was only one class equipped to handle a mystery of this size: Grade 3. And so, five different investigation teams got to work — and what they came back with may be the most thoroughly, hilariously, over-investigated school mystery in Hillspring history.

Team 1: The Voldemort Theory

Arhaan, Hamdaan, Meer, Ishay, Shaurya, Dveer, Ibrahim and Aariv

Every great mystery needs a team bold enough to reach for the darkest, most spine-chilling explanation possible — and this one didn’t flinch. This team looked at the empty office, the untouched apple, and the suspiciously quiet hallway, and arrived at the only conclusion worthy of the scene: Lord Voldemort himself had struck, right there in Principal Toad’s own office, at the exact moment he’d let his guard down for a nap. No ordinary villain would do — it had to be the darkest wizard of them all. Bold, cinematic, and utterly fearless storytelling from this crew.

Team 2: The Dictator Mbappe Conspiracy

Aariv, Jaiaan, Agastya, Yuvraaj, Aveer, Aarish and Ahaan

This team had a slightly different — and far more political — take. According to their investigation, it wasn’t Principal Toad at all, but the notoriously mean “Principal Avocado” who had gone missing, kidnapped by none other than Dictator Mbappe and hauled off to Dictator School. A missing principal, a football-star-turned-dictator, and a school for dictators — Grade 3 does not do small plots.

Team 3: The Greenest Principal Ever

Suveer, Yuvraaj, Vivaan, Krishai, Krishiv, Kartik, and Viyanna

This team took a more optimistic angle. Yes, they agreed, it was Principal Toad’s misfortune to have turned into an actual toad. But rather than treating it as a tragedy, their principal turned it into an opportunity — becoming the greenest principal Hillspring has ever had, and winning trophies for the school along the way. A true glass-half-full investigation team.

Team 4: The Zoo Incident

Rajveer, Zen, Armaan, Arah, Mira, Chahek and Mishka

This team went back to basics and asked the obvious question: what actually happened to their dear principal? After careful deliberation, they concluded that on a recent visit to the zoo, Principal Toad had picked up something magical — and that was the moment he turned into a toad. Simple, tidy, and disturbingly plausible.

Team 5: The Poem — and the Winning Entry

Nandeika, Prerna, Alyssa, Neetira, Tarushi, Viyanna and Reha

While every other team was busy building theories, this team decided the mystery deserved something better than a theory — it deserved verse. And so they solved the entire case the way great writers do: with a poem.

Principal Tattle Toad

He tattled on everyone,

He had a big smile which was filled with slime,

He wears a tie which makes him look very sly,

He eats bugs and is the weirdest principal ever!

Principal tattle toad,

He has a tie and always hops by,

He is green and slimey and his way of talking is old timey,

He has a trophy full of bugs, he likes to lick and give hugs,

You must be wondering if he is a good principal,

First of all he doesn’t know our syllables!

People don’t like him, his favourite foods are bugs in a tin,

His apple has a curse, he sleeps in a humongous purse,

He is toad-ally a bad principal, CROAK!!

And the winner is…

After five investigations, one dark wizard, one football-star dictator, one zoo mishap, and one very unimpressed trophy cabinet, the votes were in — and it was Team 5’s poem that took the crown. Slime, syllables, and a perfectly timed “CROAK!!” at the end proved impossible to beat.

But here’s the real headline: every single team showed up with something original, funny, and completely their own — a dark-wizard showdown, a political conspiracy, an underdog comeback story, a zoo mystery, and a poem sharp enough to make a whole class laugh out loud. Five wildly different stories from one missing toad, and not a single boring theory in the bunch.

Grade 3 didn’t just solve a mystery. They proved, group by group, exactly what kind of writers they’re becoming — imaginative, fearless, and just the right amount of ridiculous.

Case closed. Grade 3, you are, quite simply, toad-ally talented.