escape room for kids Archives

5 Reasons Educational Escape Rooms Keep First Graders Engaged

April 25, 2025 teachersbrain education, Teaching Tips

If your first graders are getting wiggly during lessons, it might be time to shake things up! Educational escape rooms are a fun, hands-on way to review key ELA and math skills—and they might just be the secret to keeping your students focused and excited to learn. If you’re looking for escape room ideas or educational escape room activities for your elementary students, you’re in the right spot!

Here are five reasons to give them a try in your classroom!

1. They Turn Learning Into an Adventure
Escape rooms are packed with puzzles, clues, and surprises that turn everyday lessons into exciting challenges. Students are eager to participate because they feel like they’re part of a game—not a worksheet.

2. They Reinforce ELA and Math Skills in a Fun Way
These activities are a sneaky way to review important first grade standards. From solving math problems to reading clues and following directions, students are practicing key skills while having a blast.

3. They Build Teamwork and Social Skills
Working together to “escape” encourages students to listen, take turns, and communicate clearly. It’s a great way to build classroom community while practicing real-life social skills.

4. They’re Easy to Prep with the Right Resource
Don’t let the idea of escape rooms overwhelm you. This Escape Room ELA and Math Bundle for First Grade includes everything you need. Just print, prep, and go! The challenges are designed specifically for first graders, making it simple to use right away.

5. They Work in So Many Classroom Settings
Whether you use them for centers, early finishers, Fun Friday, or whole-group review, escape rooms are super flexible. They’re a great way to break up your routine while keeping learning meaningful.

🎉 Ready to make learning feel like an adventure with escape rooms?

Grab the ELA and Math Escape Room Bundle for First Grade and bring the fun to your classroom today!

👉 Want more ideas for using escape rooms in your classroom?
Check out this helpful post: Escape Rooms in the Classroom: Tips for Fun and Educational Adventures

Virtual Escape Room Ideas Students Will Love

February 19, 2021 teachersbrain Distance Learning, Teacher's Pay Teachers

Now that virtual learning is a much more common challenge for teachers and students, planning group lessons can be difficult. Great teachers know that students learn when they interact, stretch their thinking skills, and cooperate- but virtual classrooms can make that a little harder to plan. Fortunately, there are options that bring students together to accomplish tasks and solve problems while learning virtually!

One of the best ways to incorporate fun and learning online is with virtual escape rooms.

Like real-life escape rooms, these activities encourage collaboration and team building. Students work together to solve puzzles, figure out riddles, and complete other challenges. However, virtual escape rooms are designed to be conducted via Zoom or Google Meets. They can also be completed on a projector for in-person learning.

As students complete various tasks they will unlock the “room” or solve a mystery. One caveat I like to share with teachers is that the virtual escape rooms are meant to be challenging for students. I recommend that teachers complete the challenge before introducing it to students so that they can help out if kids are stuck.

Ready to try out some virtual escape rooms?

Visit this my shop to see my collection of escape rooms that will have your students having fun while using critical thinking skills! One of my favorites is the Wacky Wednesday Digital Escape Room. This activity includes practice with nonsense words and problem-solving. Kindergarten through second-grade students will love completing the fun tasks and unlocking the room. It is a great activity to do during Read Across America Week also.

Many of the other escape rooms are perfect for seasonal activities.

There are options for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Winter Holidays, Valentine’s Day, and even the 100th Day of School! Your students will enjoy the opportunity to work together as they attack the challenges. Celebrate learning throughout the year with these exciting activities that are perfect for virtual classrooms.

Escape Room SIGHT WORD MYSTERY is great any time of the year!

Are you using virtual escape rooms in your classroom yet? Let me know in the comments!

Read about an In-Person Sight Word Escape for Primary

Tony Sarg – America’s Puppet Master

November 22, 2020 teachersbrain education, Reading, Teacher's Pay Teachers

You all, I was searching for some ideas to teach students about the famous Thanksgiving Day Parade when I found the book, Balloons Over Broadway. This story is based on a true story about Tony Sarg who invented the “upside-down puppets.” When I was young, our whole family would gather around the television to see the parade while my mom was in the kitchen cooking a Butterball turkey!

The Great Puppeteer

Tony Sarg was born in 1880. He was a German American puppeteer and illustrator. He was raised around puppets and inherited his grandmother’s collection. Once he watched a marionette show and wanted to know how the puppets were moving. They would not tell him, so he sat in the front row, attended many shows and drew pictures of the movement until he could figure it out on his own. Tony moved to New York. Macy’s contacted him about his amazing animated puppets. They wanted him to put his puppets in their store windows for Christmas. The windows were a huge success. Thousands of people would gather around the windows to watch the amazing puppets.

Then, Macy’s asked him if he would put his puppets in their first parade. He quickly realized after the parade that the puppets were too small for everyone to see. He worked with a couple others to design the large “upside-down puppets” that we all love to watch today in the parade!

Reading about Tony was fascinating. He had a great sense of humor. One time he floated a monster puppet in the ocean at Nantucket. The joke made national news. You can see a great video capturing the event here. He loved to make toys, illustrate books and made games.

An Idea Born

Learning about his life and reading the book Balloons Over Broadway, inspired me to design a digital escape room for kids to accompany the book. If you wanted to extend the activity you could have kids use permanent markers to color and create their own balloon for a “Hallway Parade” at school. If you wanted to do this lesson during Christmas, you could have students design a puppet window for a department store.

Also check out Teaching Winter Holidays Around the World