escape rooms Archives - Teacher's Brain

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

5 Engaging Tips for Teaching Geography in 2nd Grade

January 10, 2025 teachersbrain Teaching Tips

Teaching geography in 2nd grade can be a fun and rewarding experience! Students at this age are naturally curious about the world around them, making it the perfect time to introduce them to maps, regions, and cultures. If you’re looking for ways to make geography lessons both engaging and effective geography activities for kids, you’re in the right place!

Here are some tips for Geography lessons to try in your classroom:

1. Start with the Basics: Map Skills

Begin by teaching your kiddos how to read and interpret maps. You can use age-appropriate tools, like a simple map with a compass rose and key, to introduce concepts like cardinal directions, map symbols, and scale. Activities like creating a map of the classroom or their route to school make the learning personal and hands-on.

2. Make It Interactive

Incorporating games and hands-on activities into your lessons is a great way to get more student engagement and buy-in! For example, you can hide “treasures” around the classroom and provide students with a map to find them. Another idea is to use interactive digital maps to explore different regions, helping students visualize geography in action.

3. Connect Geography to Real Life

Help your students see how geography impacts their everyday lives. You can discuss how the weather, food, and even clothing are influenced by where they live. Compare and contrast different regions to deepen their understanding of how location shapes culture.

4. Integrate Literature and Stories

Books are a fantastic way to make this subject come alive! Choose stories set in different locations and pair them with map activities. After reading, students can locate the setting on a map or create their own map inspired by the story.

5. Use Engaging Resources

A structured curriculum can make teaching geography a breeze. My 2nd Grade Geography Social Studies Unit resource gives you nine weeks of ready-to-use lessons, activities, and assessments. With this resource, students will explore maps, regions, landforms, and more—all while building essential geography skills!

Check it out now!

Teaching this subject doesn’t have to be a challenge. With these tips and the right resources, your students will develop a strong understanding of the world around them—and have fun doing it!

What are your favorite geography activities for kids? Let me know in the comments! For more tips, check out my post here!

Jingle All the Way to Learning: 5 Enchanting Christmas Activities for the Classroom

November 17, 2023 teachersbrain education, Teacher's Pay Teachers, Teaching Tips, Winter, Writing

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and it’s time to sprinkle a bit of holiday magic into your classroom with some Christmas activities for kids or holiday activities for elementary.

Christmas and the winter holidays are just around the corner, and I want to share some festive resources and activities that will turn your classroom into a winter wonderland of learning and joy!

If you are looking for Christmas activities for elementary students, you’re in the right place!

Teaching during the holiday season is a special opportunity to infuse the spirit of Christmas into your lessons while keeping the focus on education. Here are some of my favorite Christmas activities for kids!

Christmas Math and Literacy Worksheets

Are you looking for some holiday worksheets for your K-1 students? I have you covered with over 100 various types of worksheets, games, and printables that cover many kindergarten and 1st grade skills.

Holidays Around the World Escape Room

Looking for a GREAT activity for your students to help your students practice problem-solving and learn about different winter holidays with a focus on the main idea? Digital Escapes™ are a fun way to get students to learn without even realizing it. NO Printing and No Prep needed for this digital escape! Super EASY for in-person or Distance Learning.

Students will click an audio button for a short story and directions to help with their first clue. During the escape, students will be tasked with solving 4 lock clues in order to escape the room and break the spell a bad elf placed on them. There is a PDF included in this download with directions, the link to the site, an answer key, and an optional note-taking worksheet for students. This activity takes about 20 to 30 minutes to complete.

Christmas Ornament Poem (FREEBIE!)

Are you looking for a great poem to easily download, print, and add to an ornament filled with a ribbon the same size as the student? I have you covered. 🙂 These make perfect gifts for the family!

Christmas Door Decorations

Christmas classroom decorations Christmas activities for kids

Ready to have the cutest door at school for the holidays? This is a simple door or bulletin board you can create using these printables. Pair Santa’s Vacation display with student writing samples or have students add a personalized bulb to the palm tree.

Santa is gone to the beach!

Ugly Sweater Christmas Writing Activity

Christmas activities for kids writing activity ugly sweater

Are you looking for a great way to do an engaging virtual OR in-person Holiday WRITING lesson with students? I have you covered with these interactive, editable Google Slides to easily have students copy and paste movable parts to DESIGN their own Ugly Sweater. Then, they will write a narrative, persuasive, or opinion paper about ugly sweaters.

‘Tis the season to be jolly and learn together! I hope you and your students love these resources as much as I do.

Looking for more Christmas fun? Check out my post here!

3 Reasons To Use Holiday Escape Rooms

October 28, 2023 teachersbrain Fall & Halloween, Halloween, St. Patrick's Day Ideas, Teacher's Pay Teachers, Winter

Let’s talk about escape rooms!

If you know me, you know that I’m a huge fan of this incredibly engaging and exciting way to teach little learners various concepts. It feels like a game and it’s just, well, fun for teachers and students! What’s not to love?!

If you’re looking for the perfect classroom escape room kit or even a fun digital escape room to use in your classroom, you’re in the right place! But first, let’s discuss some of the many benefits of escape rooms for students.

What skills do escape rooms build? What does an escape room teach?

It Boosts Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving

Escape rooms are like a real-life puzzle that our young learners get to solve together. As they work their way through the challenges and riddles, they’re not just having a blast; they’re also honing their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It’s like a sneak-attack on those important cognitive abilities!

It Fosters Teamwork and Collaboration

Escape rooms are all about teamwork. Our students have to communicate, share ideas, and assign tasks to successfully complete their mission. This experience helps them learn the value of working together and teaches them essential skills for life. Plus, it’s a whole lot of fun in the process!

It Makes Learning an Exciting Adventure

The best part is that escape rooms can sneakily incorporate educational content. Think math, science, history, and language—all cleverly disguised in the form of puzzles and challenges. By turning learning into an adventure, we can keep our students engaged, curious, and excited about learning. It’s like a magic potion for knowledge retention!

With the holidays around the corner, it’s the perfect time to bring in some engaging holiday themed escape rooms to your students! Whether it’s Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, or anything in between, it can be celebrated with a classroom escape room.

Luckily, I have the perfect resource for you! I created an all inclusive Holiday Escape Room bundle that will have you covered for all holidays!

Use these holiday themed Escape Rooms to guarantee student engagement while they learn and solve a classroom mystery. With little prep, your students will work as a team to break into a box, which breaks them out of the classroom as they beat the clock!

What’s inside this download?

6 escape rooms all meeting 1st and 2nd Grade Standards to use for the holidays. Several can be used with 3rd or Kindergarten too!

These escape rooms are focusing on Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Veterans Day, Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day.

What does an escape room look like for primary students?

You will have to spend about 40 minutes to prep your materials. Students will be separated into two groups. First students watch the YouTube video as a hook. Then, students are handed or find a mystery envelope with a clue. The clue might have them find letters to build sentences, solve puzzles, or solve a riddle. (Each escape room is different.)

Each time they complete a challenge, they get another mystery envelope. There are 3 to 4 clues in each activity. Eventually, they will discover keys that will open a box. (The keys are paper. The box can be an old paper box filled with a treat or homework pass that you will open together once each group has their key.)

Once the box is open, the student can escape the room to recess or the library.

Certificates are provided for students who are Master Mystery Problem Solvers. The activity takes about 45-60 minutes to complete!

Check it out here!

Have you tried escape rooms in your classroom? How did it go? Let me know in the comments! For more escape room fun, check out my post here!