ESCAPE ROOM: Fairytale - 10 Challenges, Resources, Student Workbook, Answer Key

Using an Escape Room to develop curriculum knowledge is an exciting activity that will inspire learners from 2nd Grade to 5th Grade.

The curriculum content of this Escape Room is linked to:

• Literature – Fairytales and Comprehension Skills
• Spelling – Word building skills
• Maths – Multiplication and Division
• Problem Solving – anagrams, riddles, sequencing

The aim of this Escape Room is to provide jeopardy for the children to work under pressure to solve 10 Challenges to move through the story of this Fairytale Escape Room.

Resources included:

• Code Key Booklet for students
• Answer Key Booklet for teachers
• Resource Pack to run this Escape Room
• Full instructions to set up and run a successful Escape Room
• PowerPoint presentation of Spell Cast Cards
• Spell Cast Cards to print

Students will meet many different characters within their Escape Room challenge and the problems are linked to elements within those stories.

For example:

• Through reading elements of overheard conversations of four witches, work out which witch belongs to which story
• Using poison lettered apples, spell a variety of words
• Using the artefacts taken from the Giant by Jack, solve math word problems in multiplication and division
• Solving riddles set by Rumpelstiltskin
• Problem Solving the amount of different ways Red Riding Hood can organise the leftovers in her basket before visiting Granny and so on.

After each challenge, the storyline of the Escape Room will move the children on until they have completed all 10 challenges.

However, this is just one element of this Escape Room. The children must solve the 10 challenges – but that will only move them through the room. In order to return home and Escape the Room – the children must also collect 6 Spell Cast Cards which, when sequenced in Challenge 10, will present them with a well-known Fairytale phrase and send the children home, out of the Escape Room and mark the end of the activity.

Spell Cast Cards are picked up as they complete specific challenges.

Before beginning this Escape Room, you will need to prepare the following resources (all of the resources are included within this product):

• A copy of the Pupil Workbook for each group
• A copy of the Answer Booklet to check the children’s work
• PowerPoint set up with the 6 Spell Casting Cards and /or
• A set of Spell Casting Cards printed for each group
• Initial Starting Script sharing the problem to the children
• Completion Script celebrating the completion of the challenge
• Group Table Labels (9 included)

Once the resources are prepared – you are ready to go on this adventure with your children!

Setting up and running the Escape Room

The Escape Room should begin with the children being put into groups of four. For home learning, the activity can be done in isolation of with other children at home. Within the classroom, four is a good collaborative number as five is too many, three can often gang up on one another and two is not always collaborative enough.

Each group is given a Code Key Booklet and they should think of a team name. They can then write their team name on their Code Key Booklet. They must not look inside the booklet until the Escape Room starts.

Each group decides on a space to work. They should then be given a Team Name Table Label and add their name to the label.

Pens and pencils are the only resources the children will need.

The children are now ready for the activity.

Start by telling the children that they should not look ahead to other activities, other than the one they are working on.

Read the Starting Script – this explains to the children what has happened and what they must do:

• Solve 10 Challenges to move through the Escape Room story and,
• Collect 6 Spell Cast Cards in order to return home

With the children, decide on a time limit for each of the challenges. Once the time is up, answers can be checked and the teams can move onto the next challenge. Some challenges are much longer than others – so at the start of each of the different challenges, it would be a good idea to review the timings – especially Challenges 1 and 2 which take a long time (10 minutes minimum for these two).

At the start of each Challenge, it is useful for the children to read the challenge on their own, and then the teacher to read it with them to ensure they understand what they are expected to do. It also means that any questions can be answered at this point.

As the children progress through the challenges, they are able to go back and work through previous challenges to complete them – but they must not move forwards.

What follows are 10 challenges which the children must solve to discover the code to move onto the next activity.

The 10 activities are based on the following outcomes:

• Word Search to introduce 31 key words related to Fairytales – as well as an extra secret hidden instruction which is the Code Key to move to Challenge 2.
• Comprehension, inference and deduction through reading the witches conversation – which Witch belongs to which tale?
• Code Breaking to reveal the 6 parts of the Spell to transport the children home safely
• Word building skills – Poison Apples
• Problem solving – Who is holding which apple?
• Sequencing – How many ways can Red Riding Hood pack her basket with four food items?
• Math questions in multiplication and division – Jack and the Beanstalk word problem solving
• Objects from Fairytales – anagram solutions
• Riddles with Rumpelstiltskin
• Casting the Spell – Putting the 6 Spell Cast Cards together, sequencing and leaving the Escape Room.

If the challenges are completed successfully by the children, they will also notice specific symbols. These symbols mean that, if they have completed the activity correctly, they will receive a Spell Cast Card. There are 6 to collect, and each card has a different part of the spell on which will send the children home safely at the end of the activity.

At this point, use the PowerPoint and cards to reveal to the children the part of the Spell that they have received.

The children keep hold of the cards/or make a note of the PowerPoint reveal until the 10th Challenge, where they will have to reorder the 6 Spell Casting Cards to reveal a well-known Fairytale Phrase to be able to send the children home.

When all 10 activities are completed, and the children have gained the correct Code Keys from each activity and cast the spell by placing the 6 Spell Cast Cards together, the teacher can read the final communication celebrating their success.

This Escape Room should last for at least 2 hours.

We hope that your children enjoy this activity.

Thank you for visiting our store,

Best wishes

INSPIReducation