Honestly, I used to be a movie gal when it came to the day before a break. I know not all of the students will be there, most of them will be completely checked out (sometimes me included), and we aren't teaching any new content. It feels like a waste of a day...
UNTIL I MADE THIS Escape Room.
Instead of a pizza day or movie day, we play this travel-themed escape room, which is perfect just before spring break, winter break, summer break, or any long school break.
Here's the Premise:
Your students are set to go on a surprise vacation, BUT they've lost their flight ticket. Each group gets a passport and a clue ticket to start.
They have 2 objectives..
1-FIND THEIR TICKET NUMBER BEFORE TAKE OFF...
2-FIND THEIR FINAL DESTINATION
Hidden around the room are 5 puzzles that will result in 2 numbers each that end up making your flight ticket number.
The puzzles are all travel themed, for example, you need to pack but you don't know where you are going.. do you bring sunglasses, or skis? This puzzle will get you one step closer to the final destination reveal.
Once you have your final ticket number it's time for the meta puzzle that will reveal their surprise destination.... JAMAICA!
Benefits of this Escape Room
Should I state the obvious? It's FUN. It gets your students out of their chairs and problem-solving together! Also, the puzzles require critical thinking and spatial awareness, along with skills like understanding longitude and latitude, and reading maps. These are super useful life skills, all presented in a 100% engaging way.
How to Set Up
I've gotten an escape room before off of TPT, and it looked great, but setting it up was so tiring. I had to read the instructions multiple times, and the CUTTING... so much cutting involved. I tried to make this escape room different and EASY to set up. So here it is: I made a printing guide, teachers' instructions both written and in video form (hello, visual learners), and only 5 puzzles to set up.
Materials needed:
5 envelopes (or 10 if your class size is large)
COLOR PRINTER (the tasks are color-coded and need to be printed in color)
Tape and scissors for setup
It takes around 15 minutes tops to set up; all you need to do is print out the puzzles, cut them out, and put them in the envelopes with the labels on the front (lamination might also be helpful.) Then print out a passport (double-sided) for each group along with a clue ticket. I like to keep my groups no bigger than 4 so they all participate.
That's it... seriously.
It takes around 45-50 minutes to complete, but that depends a bit on the age group. I made this for grades 7-10, so the older grades will be faster, and the younger grades might need some extra help to finish on time.
Here is a video in case you are anything like me and prefer video instructions over written!
You can grab this escape room right HERE on my site.. or on my TPT Shop. Pssst.. all purchases made on this website are 15% discounted compared to the tpt shop price ;)
Teach On,
Katie
