Complete Catalog of ELA Escape Room Resources

I felt like I found the Holy Grail for teachers when I used an escape room in my class for the first time.

After all, doesn’t every teacher want instant classroom engagement, just by taking advantage of an innate characteristic of every middle school student?

Curiosity!

After I wrote about the kids’ amazing feedback on their breakout experiences, I started getting about a gazillion questions about a list of escape rooms and skills (okay, 😉 maybe not quite a gazillion). So I decided that the best place for that would be right here.

Every single one requires close reading, team-building, and critical thinking. Every single one is also interactive and immersive. And each one includes a focus skill (in bold), as well as other skills to practice.

Additionally, each escape activity includes congratulatory awards, exit slips, and a useful takeaway with notes about the focus skill.

Take a look. And don’t hesitate to ask questions. I’m shooting for a gazillion. 😂

Escape the School- ELA Comprehension & Writing Activity

Summary:

Summary:

This fun, nautical, back to school escape room establishes that you are the most awesome teacher in the history of the world. 😂

Really. It starts when you arrange a beginning of the year field trip to work on team-building with your class. (Who does that? Only the most awesome teacher!) As the kids learn how to sail an old ship, things go horrible wrong when the powerful god of the sea gets

involved! Poseidon is not happy

with your students, and he traps them out at sea until they redeem themselves by working together to complete a series of tasks.

Focus Skills & Tasks:

• Growth Mindset
• Study Skills
• Team-Building
• Close Reading
• Classroom Expectations
• Creative Writing

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Escape the Forest- Text Structure, Plot, & Idioms

Summary:

This adventure also starts with a fun, optional video introduction that adds atmosphere and urgency. The backstory of the escape room begins with you, the most awesome and creative teacher in the history of the world, taking the kids on a picnic field trip.

While taking a little walk, the kids become curious about a mysterious girl in a red cape. They follow her too deeply into the woods and get lost. Now they have to work with an interesting cast of characters to figure out the forest’s wifi password. There’s never a dull moment in this forest!

Focus Skills & Tasks:

• Text Structure
• Plot Elements
• Idioms
• Close Reading
• Team-Building
• Math Word Problem

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Escape the Haunted House- Halloween

Summary:

This spooktacular breakout adventure starts when your students receive a mysterious invitation to visit a local haunted house. Once they arrive, they find out their gruesome host has brought them there to solve a challenging mystery. And he will not let them leave unless they succeed!

This escape activity also begins with a short video that is totally optional.

Focus Skills & Tasks:

• Characterization
• Close Reading
• Observation
• Riddles
• Team-Building
• Critical Thinking

 

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Escape the Snow Globe

Summary:

You know how sometimes you shake a snow globe and magically end up INSIDE it?

No? Well, it happens to your students, and they have a series of tasks to complete before they will be able to break out of the snowy world.

This escape room celebrates friendship. It is perfect to use during the holiday season; especially if you need an enjoyable and nondenominational holiday season activity. It takes place during a holiday celebrated in the snowy world inside the globe.

Focus Skills & Tasks:

• Figurative Language 
• Reading Comprehension
• Creative Writing
• Team-Building
• Critical Thinking Puzzles

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Valentine’s Day Escape Room

Summary:

Cupid’s got some major league problems, and not one of them is that he doesn’t look anything like any Cupid you’ve ever seen. 💘🙈

Your students are going to have to help him find the combination to his safe. If they don’t, not only will Valentine’s Day be a disaster, but they will all be stuck in Cupid’s Valentine factory forever!

This escape comes in two versions, one is mild and one is spicy. The mild one is a little easier, so it can be used for younger students or for classes with less time. The spicy one is more challenging.

Focus Skills & Tasks:

• Proofreading
• Creative Writing
• Reading Comprehension
• Team-Building
• Critical Thinking

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Escape Fractured Fairytales!- Plot Elements

Summary:

This classroom adventure starts with a trip to a publishing house, to learn how magazines and books are published. While your class is there, something goes terribly wrong, and the kids have to save the day… if they can!

There is an optional video introduction that sets the tone and adds a little bit of fairytale flavor. Then students will read a comic strip and several short stories. One of the tasks requires them to compare the plot elements of an original fairytale and its fractured counterpart. Another will require kids to fracture a fairy tale themselves!

Focus Skills & Tasks:

• Plot Elements: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, conflict, climax, falling action, resolution, protagonist, and antagonist
• Creative Writing
• Team Building
• Close Reading
• Critical Thinking

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