Escape Room 2nd Grade
Cherrie Patete
Freezy the Snowman loves playing in the snow with his friends. When his friends decide to go skiing, he feels sad and left out so he is persuaded by his animal friends to go in the ski shop to get a pair of skis.
You can add an extra challenge to the escape room by setting a time limit for the students to complete the escape. If using a time limit, I suggest posting the time remaining somewhere the students can clearly see it and announcing the time remaining every once in a while. Be sure that the time limit you choose gives students a good chance at success.
Personally, for the first few escape rooms I did with my young kindergarten students I did not use a time limit because my objectives for the escape room were to review skills, problem solve, and work as a team, not focus on beating the clock. However, it does add an extra challenge for after they become more familiar with doing them.
It is a great idea to incorporate a wide variety of skills into your escape room so that all students can showcase their abilities. The clues should be challenging but not too difficult as to be frustrating for students.
Buster has found 5 clues around the North Pole and there are five locks on the reindeer barn door. Hmmm what do you think this means? (student answer: there is a clue for each lock) He also discovered Christmas pictures on each lock. Hmmm each clue is a letter. Do you think there is a connection? (student answer: the clues for each lock are the beginning sound of the picture.)
If this is your first time doing an escape room, you may want to do it as a whole class in order to show students how escape rooms work. You present the story and problem to the class. If you have hidden the clues around the room, you can give students hints as to where they are located. Once they think they know the location, choose a student to retrieve each one. Work together to solve the clues.
After you do a couple of escape rooms as a class, if you feel your students can complete the clues independently and know they can work together well in groups, then you may want to complete the escape room using small groups. Start out as a whole group while you present them with the story or problem. Then, you can split them up into small groups.
You can choose to provide each group with their clues OR hide them around the room and have each group find their clues. You can assign specific areas of the room to each group and hide their clues in their assigned space OR label the clues with certain letters or numbers and each group must find specific clues around the room.
When groups have solved the clues, you can decide if you wish for them to come to you to see if they are correct or raise their hands and you come to them. You can also have printable answer keys and allow them to check their own answers.
It is nice to have some sort of picture or visual to end the escape room once all of the clues have been solved. It does not have to be elaborate, just a visual that shows the problem has been solved. For example, I show my students this picture at the end of the Christmas escape that shows them the reindeer are now free thanks to their efforts of unlocking the locks on the door and everyone at the North Pole thanks them.
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As with my other math escape room activities, there is a physical version and a digital version. This means students can still participate in the activities without access to the locks and lockboxes. Instead of using the locks, students can enter the codes in a Google form. I also have a third grade version and a fourth grade version to meet specific grade level standards.
In clue 1, students must match the multiplication comparison statement with the corresponding number sentence or number. For example, students must recognize that 21 is three times bigger than seven. Students will use a ruler to connect the statement and answer, and as they connect the dots they will cross out letters. The letters that are NOT crossed out are used to open the 5-letter lock.
In clue 3, students solve a variety of multiplication problems. There are a few problems where students find the largest and smallest partial product of a multiplication problem. However, the majority of the problems include 2-digit by 2-digit and 4-digit by 1-digit problems. Students use the symbol on each problem and the hieroglyphic decoding wheel to decode the message to open the next lock.
Once again, I needed to make a few changes to the third grade version of the math escape room. This contains 12 word problems, where I threw in a couple addition word problems to prevent students from assuming they should multiply to solve every problem. There are also several multiples of ten problems in this version.
When the clue (#4) says to circle a number and then cross out every other multiple of that number do you intend for students to cross out the second fourth and sixth etc or first third fifth and so on??
On the first day of camp we will go to a local escape room to both experience the thrill of attempting to escape as well as interview the owner on the tips and tricks used to design escape rooms. Campers will then return to campus to design and build their own escape rooms to run on the last day of camp for real customers. There will also be daily mini-escape rooms designed by the camp guides. *There is an extra $30 fee for this camp because of the field trip.
The first escape room scenario is titled Prison Break and you are asked to break out of prison. The game comes with a timer in which you must insert a series of 4 keys in the proper sequence if you want to break the code. Each scenario has 3 challenges within, so you have to insert the correct sequence of codes in 3 times if you want to escape.
Each game scenario is played in 3 parts. You open the envelope for part 1 and try to find the first sequence of keys to place in the decoder. If you are correct, it makes a happy sound and you know that you can go to part 2. If incorrect, it cusses you out in buzzer form and you lose a couple of minutes off of your time.
We got the first sequence of keys correct all by ourselves, but upon reading the answers in a walkthrough (I talk more about this below), it turns out we got the correct answer for the wrong reason. Basically, we got lucky. I shall now hang my head in shame.
We recently hosted a family Breakout Room program over Spring Break using the Breakout EDU kit (which Heather talked about in her post). It was our first foray into escape rooms and we developed our own scenario/puzzles with a pizzeria theme. We tried to make the room family friendly with a mix of puzzles that kids and adults could solve and we had 12 teams take part over 4 days. 9 of the 12 teams escaped and it was really well received. We would recommend the Breakout EDU kit to other libraries, it worked really well for us and is really flexible for developing a variety of scenarios for groups of different sizes and ages.
I love escape rooms, so the idea of a video game designed by escape room creators is right up my alley. To its credit, Escape Academy does a damn good job of capturing the feeling of completing an escape room, with the added spice of dangerous consequences that a fictional story set in a virtual space allows. Escape Academy is, however, oftentimes too accurate to the experience of an escape room for its own good. Still, there's a delightful puzzle game here that makes for a rewarding afternoon with a friend nonetheless.
When you've successfully completed all of the escape room's puzzles and challenges, take a screenshot of the escape room's final page. Send your screenshot to zo...@gailborden.info along with your name, your grade in school, and a phone number Gail Borden can use to contact you. When we receive your information, you'll be entered to win a $20 Target gift card! The winner's name will be drawn on October 30. You may send in an entry for each digital escape room you complete, so check Gail Borden's calendar of events to make sure you've conquered them all!
This was our first time working together to co-chair an event and our energy and enthusiasm match. Our creative juices bubble over when you put us across from each other at a table to plan. A 15 minute meeting turns into a few hours of non-stop over-the-top discussions, visions and ideas that most people would call us crazy for. Our sense of humor keeps us sane even when the most unexpected circumstances are thrown at us. And there were plenty.
Thank you, Heather!! The kids loved the locks and my son has been practicing all summer! We pushed the fact that the kids would be working cooperatively and using critical thinking skills so our party was enthusiastically supported. ?
I love this so much!! I am a huge escape room fan plus a mom and former teacher so this touched my heart! My mom was a big participant in our school growing up, so I had to read this to her because it sounded like the things she loved doing. Fantastic job!
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