St Patrick's Day: ESCAPE ROOM - 10 Challenges, Answer Key, All resources, PRINT AND GO!

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 the traditions of St Patrick’s Day, the history of St Patrick, how, where and why we celebrate today.

The aim of the Escape Room is to provide jeopardy for students to work under pressure to solve 10 clues to help raise their knowledge of why we celebrate St Patrick’s Day each year on March 17th. The 10 Challenges within this Escape Room will support their growing knowledge and understanding of the history, traditions and global celebrations which occur on that day. This is achieved through a range of fun, exciting and stimulating activities – perfect for St Patrick’s Day!

Included within this Escape Room:

• Pupil Answer Book (Code Key Booklet)
• Answer Booklet for teachers
• Starting script to set the scene of the Escape Room and explain what the students must do
• Concluding script, celebrating the learning which has taken place and allows the students to “leave” the Escape Room
• Table labels for students to name their own teams
• Full instructions to be able to simply print and go within your own classroom

The only additional resource your students might need is access to the internet and atlas’ to research specific facts and geographical places in the world.

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
• Copy of the poem (not included in this resource)
• Initial Starting Script sharing the problem to the children
• Completion Script celebrating the completion of the challenge

Students do not need prior knowledge St Patrick’s Day, or the traditions and historical relevance – but should have access to research materials to support them in their quest as each challenge unfolds. This Escape Room so is suitable for a one-off adventure for your students.

The activity begins by the teacher reading the Initial Message received. It clearly tells the students that they are to learn about St Patrick’s Day, the traditions, history and development of the celebration throughout the world. Not only that, but they have also been tasked with helping a new friend return home – once they have helped them to find the gold at the end of the rainbow. They are told that there are 10 Challenges to complete, and they must correctly complete each challenge before moving onto the next.

After the 10th activity – the teacher can read the final script which reviews the learning the children have undertaken as they have completed each of the challenges. 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 St Patrick, St Patrick’s Day and its’ traditions, as well as how it is celebrated throughout the world.

The 10 activities are based on the following outcomes:

• Word search – find 25 words related to St Patrick’s Day, as well as a hidden word to reveal their new friend which they must help to find the gold and return home.
• Coordinates in the first quadrant. Plot the given coordinates to reveal their invisible, hiding friend – a Leprechaun. Once revealed, the students can then start to solve the remaining 8 challenges and find the gold!
• Crossword to complete focusing on the meaning of key words associated with St Patrick.
• Learn more about the life of St Patrick and fill in the missing words to complete the reading passage.
• Beat the maze – lead your new leprechaun friend around the maze to find the pot of gold.
• Link celebrations to ten places in the world.
• Match the 10 places in the world to their position on the world map.
• True or False – answer ten statements about St Patrick which are either True or False
• Colors – to return your new Leprechaun friend home, you must identify the colors of the rainbow from the given statements. Correct completion allows the Leprechaun to ride the rainbow home with the gold.
• Word making: Using the letters from the name Saint Patrick – how many different words can the students make from the letters? There are 635 possible answers!

When all 10 activities are completed, and the students have gained the correct answers from each activity, the final celebratory script can be read which reviews the learning and informs the students that they have been successful and can leave the Escape Room!

Setting up the Escape Room

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

2. Access to atlas’ and potential internet access should be available

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 students a set time to complete the problem in – this ensures that the students stay on task and maintains the Escape Room element of working under pressure.

6. At the end of the time, students 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 students should have.

7. Move on through the remaining challenges until all 10 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 10 tables and the students 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 at least 2 hours.

We hope that your students enjoy this Escape Room.

Best wishes

INSPIReducation