History ESCAPE ROOM: Elizabethan England/Tudor Escape Room - 8 Challenges, 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. This escape room focuses upon the reign of Queen Elizabeth within the Elizabethan period/Tudor reign of England and the exploration of the world which occurred under Elizabeth's reign.

The curriculum content of this Escape Room is linked to:

• European/British History – The Elizabethans/Tudor links
• The life and legacy of Queen Elizabeth
• Exploration, explorers and new products found in the New World throughout the reign of Elizabeth I
• Chronological understanding of the life of Queen Elizabeth from birth to death

The aim of the Escape Room is to provide jeopardy for the children to work under pressure to solve 8 clues to help raise the awareness of The Elizabthan period of British history. The 8 Challenges within this Escape Room will support knowledge and understanding of the events, people and exploration during the Elizabthan period.

Before beginning, you will need to prepare the following:

• A copy of the Pupil Workbook for each group
• A set of table team names for every group – prepared beforehand and given to each group to set up their own working space
• IT sources and research materials
• Initial Starting Script sharing the problem to the children
• Completion Script celebrating the completion of the challenge

Children do not need prior knowledge of The Elizabethans to complete this Escape Room so is suitable for a starter challenge to a new topic. The ability to have access to research resources will support the answers. This Escape Room is ideal as a review of learning to identify what the children have learnt and retained as a result of completing the study unit of The Elizabethans.

The activity begins by the teacher reader the Initial Message received. It clearly tells the children that they are required to help raise the understanding of why the Elizabethans were important. The way to do this is to successfully complete 8 Challenges – each one will provide a Code Key, enabling the children to move onto the next Challenge and so on until all 8 are completed.

After the 8th activity – the teacher can read the final script which reviews the learning the children have undertaken as they have completed each of the challenges – leading to an understanding of the legacy of the Elizabethans continuing for many years to come and not being forgotten as time passes. This script, together with team labels and the opening challenge script are contained within the Resource Pack.

Each activity focuses and builds the children’s knowledge of The Elizabethans:

The 8 activities are based on the following outcomes:

• Word Search to introduce 29 key words related The Elizabethans ensuring that children develop a wide vocabulary when discussing key events, people and elements of the Elizabethans.
• Crossword to complete which introduces further important information to the children – there are 13 clues to solve.
• Timeline of Queen Elizabeth’s life
• Tudor Family Tree, Henry VIII, wives and children
• Explorers and their discoveries
• Tudor Food – True and False statements
• Explorers and their achievements (2)
• Know your explorers

When all 8 activities are completed, and the children have gained the correct Code Keys from each activity, the final celebratory script can be read which reviews the learning and informs the children that they have been successful and can leave the Escape Room!

Setting up the Escape Room

1. Children should be split into groups of no more than four and be placed in their own workspace.

2. Access to IT and research materials should be provided to allow children to research answers to questions and review their own knowledge, as well as checking answers.

3. Each group should have a Code Key Booklet and decide on a team name

4. Read the Initial Message to the children to set the challenge in context. Discuss what this means, and what the activity entails.

5. Turn to Code Key 1. Agree with the children a set time to complete the problem in – this ensures that the children stay on task and maintains the Escape Room element of working under pressure.

6. At the end of the time, children should have filled in the Code Key in their booklet. The teacher can then check the accuracy of all the groups and talk through the responses the children should have.

7. Move on through the remaining challenges until all 8 have been completed.

8. For those groups who have been successful, they are then able to read the completed statement where they find out if they have escaped the Escape Room!

There are other ways of running Escape Room activities, for example, each activity could be set up on 8 tables and the children then move from table to table completing the activity. This would reduce the need for as many resources, and access to non-fiction sources and Internet Resources could then be targeted at specific Challenges.

The Escape Room should last for 2 hours.

We hope that your children enjoy this Escape Room.

Thank you for visiting our store,

Best wishes

INSPIReducation