I was chatting with a colleague the other day, and she mentioned she was deep into planning a DIY escape room for her daughter’s birthday party. It totally piqued my curiosity! I went home and decided to MacGyver a few mini-missions for my own kids.
Because I was working with a 5 year old and a 9 year old, I had to get creative with differentiation right out of the gate. For my oldest, I designed text-based challenges that required some decoding. For my youngest, I swapped out sentences for visual cues, like a green circle paired with the prompt “find something green.”
Watching them, the pure focus, the teamwork, the “aha!” moments were so joyful. They had an absolute blast! It got my teacher-brain firing on all cylinders: How can I bring this level of magic into a classroom? I know many of you are already “Breakout” pros, but as someone newly obsessed, I’m so excited to start weaving these into my small group rotations.
So let’s talk about the “how-to” of making it work for your classroom.
Logistics: Think about how you would like to organize your class. Managing the groups can look different depending on your class size. I prefer using small groups and doing escape rooms during centers. I keep the group size to 4 to 6 students, which means everyone stays involved. If you’re doing this with a group of 25 or more kids, break them into competing teams. Print multiple copies of the clues and set up “stations” around the room so teams aren’t tripping over each other.
Materials: Depending on your escape room design, this might include invisible ink pens and UV flashlights for hidden messages, Post-it notes for clues, a tracking sheets per group, physical locks, puzzle cards, envelopes, task cards, answer keys, and any manipulatives. Keep materials clearly labeled and store in separate folders or bins. This will make setup easier and help students to stay focused on the tasks.
One thing I quickly learned is that escape rooms don’t have to require a a lot of paper. Instead of printing clue packets, I simply write clues on paper strips (recycled paper works as well) and provide each group with a blank sheet of paper numbered to match the challenges. Students record their answers and completed tasks as they go, which keeps materials manageable, reduces waste, and makes setup and cleanup much easier.
Inclusion: The great part about an escape room is that it’s naturally multi-sensory, but we can make it even more inclusive. For multilingual language learners (MLLs), use visual clues along with adapted, familiar text. Instead of a long paragraph of text, use pictures, maps, or icons that lead to a numerical code. This allows you to test logic and content knowledge without the language barrier getting in the way. For students with exceptionalities, scaffolding and using matching visuals or digital speech to text instructions, is also a great way make escape rooms inclusive. I also like to provide the whole class with “Hint Cards” that students can “buy” using a minute of their time. It keeps frustration low while keeping the challenge high.
Keeping Engagement High: Ensure your “locks” require different skills, one math-based, one spatial (like a puzzle), and one logic-based. This variety keeps students engaged while creating opportunities for all learners to excel. Additionally, bringing a theme like “birthday party”, “Candy Crush” or “Canada’s Wonderland” into a lesson on fractions or phonics is a game changer. It turns the classroom into a place of fun, mystery and teamwork.
Don’t reinvent the wheel! If you aren’t ready to build one from scratch, check out these go-to spots:
- Breakout EDU: They offer physical kits and a large library of digital games for a variety of subjects. This one includes a 14 day free trial and a fee afterwards.
- Digital Escape Rooms: Use Google Forms to create your own, this is a great free hack and it saves paper. Use “Response Validation” so students can’t move to the next “room” until they type the correct code! Check out pre-made ones for more ideas: https://sites.google.com/view/mtescape/escape-rooms-by-subject/english
Remember escape rooms are about engagement, collaboration, and joy in learning. They give students opportunities to have meaningful conversations, think out loud, make mistakes, and try again. They show the value in problem solving just as much as content knowledge, and they create moments for students to be the leaders. So whether you start with one simple mission or dive into a fully themed breakout experience, remember: it doesn’t have to be perfect. Start small, reflect, and build from there.
