No Locks Easy Prep Escape Rooms!

Are you ready for an Escape Room in your classroom? I have something that works so well and it’s EASY PREP!

Have you ever been to a live Escape Room event? I mean one where you are actually locked in a room! I have been twice and, wow! The puzzles are hard. Thank goodness the people with me were very clever. The most recent Escape we attended was so fun and we escaped with only 49 seconds left on the clock.

So, keeping all that in mind, a few years back I started creating Escape Rooms for elementary classrooms! Mine are puzzles and tasks that require students to open a locked box. My students cannot get enough of these events and I cannot invent them quickly enough.

But then I tried something else- something easy prep but still an escape!

So, here you are!

If you are ready to try a classroom Escape or Breakout you are going to love these resources! What is different about the paper/pencil escape room? It is simple! Students complete tasks to earn a method of ‘escaping’. The prep for the events with NO LOCKS is minimal- just making copies. No locks or boxes!

In this post, for your convenience, you may find Amazon Affiliate links to resources. This means that Amazon will pass on small percentages to me with your purchase of items. This will not create extra costs for you at all! It will help me keep this blog running!

How do these escape rooms work?

Well, to be honest, I had no idea, but just started with one of my locked boxed resources and thought of ways students could earn something rather than opening a lock. After that, the details for no locks escape rooms just fell into place.

  • There has to be a scenario for the escape.
  • Students collect something along the way.
  • Teams complete 4 tasks.
  • Hints are available if teams get stuck.
  • Teams that escape are awarded a certificate
  • You can also opt to add a STEM Challenge to the Easy Prep Escape Room

Escape the Water Park

The Scenario: Teams are visiting a water park! Teams will make their way through the Water Park Maze by completing some tasks.

The Tasks:

  • a logic puzzle about the bumper car ride.
  • solve addition problems using snack prices
  • read a passage about Ferris Wheels
  • determine if sentences about waterparks are written correctly

Escape the North Pole

The Scenario: The team works at the bakery at the North Pole. It is almost Christmas and they want to have a vacation. If the team completes 4 tasks they escape the north pole and go home for the holidays!

The Tasks:

  • Solve a logic puzzle
  • Match idioms to their meanings within a sentence
  • Follow directions and find locations on a map
  • Convert expanded numbers to standard form

Escape the Maze

The Scenario: The team has entered a human-size maze (it’s pretend). The maze is actually on paper and they trace their path through as they complete the tasks. In the maze, teams find their path is blocked by a “lock”. To open the lock a task must be completed.

The Tasks:

  • Letter maze
  • Pattern maze
  • Secret Code
  • Word search that has synonyms for the word AMAZE

Escape the Library

The Scenario: Students are trapped in the library. Each team has a library card. They must complete four tasks and get four spots on their library card stamped (or marked) to escape the library.

The Tasks:

  • Identify character, setting, or plot
  • Identify the genre
  • Match figurative language types used )
  • Place book titles in ABC order

Escape the Blizzard

The Scenario: The team is hiking through a canyon when it begins to snow. They must complete four tasks to escape the snowstorm.

The Tasks: 

  • Snowman Math (subtract or multiply)
  • Match categories to objects
  • Solve a secret code message
  • Math Target (add or multiply)

Students earn a snowflake for each task that is completed.

Escape the Principal’s Office

The Scenario: The principal calls a team to the office and lets them know there is not a problem. The principal just wants to challenge the team to complete four tasks to Escape the Office!

The Tasks:

  • Determine the proper use of irregular verbs.
  • Read a comic strip and choose the correct homophones.
  • Complete math problems to answer a riddle.
  • Determine the names of countries on a world map.

Escape the Candy Factory

The Scenario: Students are on a field trip to a candy factory. Each team is given a team ticket and as they enter the first part of the tour the door is locked behind them (pretend). In order to get out of that room and move into the next part of the tour, the team must complete a task.

The Tasks:

  • Students complete magic squares. 
  • Students find the area of rectangles.
  • Students travel through a maze and encounter math problems in the pathways.
  • Students solve simple multiplication problems

Escape the Rainbow

The scenario: One of the legends of the rainbow is about its pot of gold. It is said that leprechauns buried pots of gold at the end of the rainbow. Students must complete four tasks to make their way ‘through the rainbow’ and escape to grab the gold.

The Tasks:

  • Math problems and tiny mazes
  • Match sentences to types of figurative language
  • Reading passage with questions
  • Determine which sentences are grammatically correct

Escape the Game

The scenario: The team is attending a basketball game and as they leave they find themselves a little lost in the large arena. To find their way out they must complete four tasks.

The Tasks:

  • Using a coordinate grid with a basketball court background
  • Reading passage about the invention of basketball
  • Match basketball vocabulary to meanings
  • Logic puzzle about the size shoe worn by basketball players

Earth Day Escape

The scenario: Students are reviewing specific skills that all have information about Earth Day, pollution, recycling, reducing, reusing, and more as part of the task.

The Tasks:

  • Finding spelling errors in sentences about Earth Day.
  • Use a coordinated grid of a garden.
  • Complete word problems with recycling facts
  • Read a passage about Earth Day

Escape the School

The scenario: It is the last day of school. Students discover they are locked in the building. To get out, the teams must work through a school map that is a maze.

The Tasks:

  • Complete math problems to solve a puzzle.
  • Solve math problems and then use specific digits in an order of operations problem.
  • Find the area of rectangles and complete a puzzle.
  • Use a graph to complete multiple-choice questions.

How fun are these! And here is the best news ever! Your prep is minimal! All you do is make some copies- of the task sheets and items students will collect! That is all!

Click on any of the images or titles to see more details. And, don’t forget that each of these No Locks Easy Prep Escape Rooms is available with a STEM Challenge!

If you are ready to try a classroom Escape or Breakout you are going to love these resources! What is different about the paper/pencil escape room? It is simple! Students complete tasks to earn a method of ‘escaping’. The prep for the events with NO LOCKS is minimal- just making copies. No locks or boxes!

The post No Locks Easy Prep Escape Rooms! appeared first on Teachers are Terrific.