*This was purchased on TeachersPayTeachers from Taylor Teaches 7th. Show your appreciation by visiting and purchasing some of her other great classroom material. I have also found numerous alternatives browsing the web too if anyone needs good recommendations.
We have built up to this day for two weeks now, and it's finally here! We finally got to play the Escape Game! We were supposed to play it last Friday, but it didn't fit in the schedule. So, today was the day! If anyone hasn't heard about Escape Rooms yet, they need to be googled immediately. I recently went to one in Nashville and it was amazing. Difficult, but amazing. Weeks ago, another Language Arts teacher on my team found and distributed a Language Arts Escape Room to use in the classroom. There are four stations, so for my classes I split students up into groups of five or six. At each station, students received a set of directions, a decoder, and pieces of puzzles to complete. The four puzzles to complete were a Plot Diagram, Figurative Speech, Types of Conflict, and Fiction Terms. I set a time of 10-15 minutes per station, but this changed based on class and students. At the end, there was a link for students to click and enter their code which then proclaimed whether they escaped the room or not. The last part allowing students to enter the code isn't necessary, but it posted on the SmartBoard and students were excited to share their escape with the class.
It is hard at first, I'll admit that. Some of the material students haven't learned yet, some of it they have forgotten. They need the whole team to help them figure each station out. I tended to walk around giving clues and telling them certain pieces they might not need to use (the puzzles offer more pieces than necessary). Regardless of not knowing all of the information, the students all had fun with it and were excited to be playing. My first class took about 50 minutes to complete, my second class around 60, and my third class around 45 minutes. The times vary depending on the groups and their involvement.
This was another fun day for students to use team-building skills and prior knowledge to assist them with solving the clues. Many of the students turned it into a competition seeing who could finish their station first. Students were not allowed to move onto a different station until the rest of the class was done as well. This was done to avoid chaos and it seemed to work out well. If students finished early, they were allowed to play on their iPad or read a book. I didn't allow them to move around the room in case they overheard another station's code. It helped avoid any cheating.
I laminated all of the material and plan to use it again either right before Christmas break or at the end of the year. It will be a good way for students to assess how much they have learned throughout the year. This Escape Room was Language Arts based. However, I have researched other similar games that can be related to any subject or activity. Some ways to make it more interesting for students are to involve actual locks to unlock, boxes to open or find throughout the room, time limits on each station, or mixing and matching stations (one Math, one Science, one TV, etc.) The options for differentiating these games are endless.
If anyone finds any great alternatives or ways they are using them in the classroom and would like to share, I'd love to get some new ideas! If anyone has any questions on ways to use in the classroom or how to differentiate for certain classes, please feel free to ask. I love talking shop. :)
Have a great weekend!
Love,
💜 Ms. Haury
We have built up to this day for two weeks now, and it's finally here! We finally got to play the Escape Game! We were supposed to play it last Friday, but it didn't fit in the schedule. So, today was the day! If anyone hasn't heard about Escape Rooms yet, they need to be googled immediately. I recently went to one in Nashville and it was amazing. Difficult, but amazing. Weeks ago, another Language Arts teacher on my team found and distributed a Language Arts Escape Room to use in the classroom. There are four stations, so for my classes I split students up into groups of five or six. At each station, students received a set of directions, a decoder, and pieces of puzzles to complete. The four puzzles to complete were a Plot Diagram, Figurative Speech, Types of Conflict, and Fiction Terms. I set a time of 10-15 minutes per station, but this changed based on class and students. At the end, there was a link for students to click and enter their code which then proclaimed whether they escaped the room or not. The last part allowing students to enter the code isn't necessary, but it posted on the SmartBoard and students were excited to share their escape with the class.
It is hard at first, I'll admit that. Some of the material students haven't learned yet, some of it they have forgotten. They need the whole team to help them figure each station out. I tended to walk around giving clues and telling them certain pieces they might not need to use (the puzzles offer more pieces than necessary). Regardless of not knowing all of the information, the students all had fun with it and were excited to be playing. My first class took about 50 minutes to complete, my second class around 60, and my third class around 45 minutes. The times vary depending on the groups and their involvement.This was another fun day for students to use team-building skills and prior knowledge to assist them with solving the clues. Many of the students turned it into a competition seeing who could finish their station first. Students were not allowed to move onto a different station until the rest of the class was done as well. This was done to avoid chaos and it seemed to work out well. If students finished early, they were allowed to play on their iPad or read a book. I didn't allow them to move around the room in case they overheard another station's code. It helped avoid any cheating.
I laminated all of the material and plan to use it again either right before Christmas break or at the end of the year. It will be a good way for students to assess how much they have learned throughout the year. This Escape Room was Language Arts based. However, I have researched other similar games that can be related to any subject or activity. Some ways to make it more interesting for students are to involve actual locks to unlock, boxes to open or find throughout the room, time limits on each station, or mixing and matching stations (one Math, one Science, one TV, etc.) The options for differentiating these games are endless.
If anyone finds any great alternatives or ways they are using them in the classroom and would like to share, I'd love to get some new ideas! If anyone has any questions on ways to use in the classroom or how to differentiate for certain classes, please feel free to ask. I love talking shop. :)
Have a great weekend!
Love,
💜 Ms. Haury
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