Easter Egg Hunt Escape Room!

I find that it's easier for people to understand Escape rooms if they see some visuals and read a more specific description of the activities.  I try to do all of my ER's with my groups to test them out, but I don't always get a chance.  I finally got to do my Easter ER with my young elementary and 4th/5th graders this year so I thought I'd share some things that I did!

If you are interested in purchasing this ER, the plans are very simple, but a LOT of fun!  Both of my groups had a blast and were so excited when they escaped!  Here is the link to purchase.  It is my cheapest ER because I only provide the plans - and only one of the puzzles.  Normally, I provide you with multiple ready-made clues.  But the puzzles are pretty easy to make and you probably have the materials on hand.

Obviously, you will need Easter Eggs and candy!

Some letter tiles from any game (Scrabble, Bananagrams, etc.) or you could
just write them on paper and cut them up.

a puzzle with pieces that fit into the eggs

In my plan, I provide you with a description of 4 clues they need to figure out and I give you ways to make those clues harder or easier depending on the age of your group.  The idea is for the kids to figure out the 4 shapes needed to unlock the lock and their correct order.  In my case, I got my directional lock out to use and realized I lost the previous combination!  So, I quickly ordered a new one from Amazon.  Unfortunately, it arrived 3 hours too late (no joke!) so I had to improvise.  What I did was put 4 papers up on the wall for both groups and numbered them 1-4.  They had to draw the correct shape on the correct paper in order to "escape the hunt".  It worked fine and they didn't seem to care that I didn't have an actual lock :)  Kids are very flexible!

Without giving away my entire hunt, one of the clues was to write something inside ONE of the eggs.  For the youngest group, I simply wrote the clue.  For the older group, I hid blacklight flashlights in the room and gave them a clue on the puzzle for where to find them.  Using the blacklight, they had to find which egg held the clue.  They were running out of time, so I helped them by telling them which child had the "special" egg (I wrote down which egg held the clue so I knew immediately who had it).  
 

older group with the clue using black light.  it was way brighter than it looks
in the picture

younger group with a clue written out with marker

To make it really interesting, I did my older elementary group in the gym...in the DARK!  I put obstacles everywhere, put glow lights in some of the eggs and had them hunt in the dark!  When they thought they got all the eggs, I gave them flashlights :)  It made the hunt last a little longer and they enjoyed the challenge!  I wanted their hunt/escape room to last 1 hour so I needed to give them some challenges.  Turned out, I didn't really need to, because they got stuck on the puzzle clue and the black light clue! lol

obstacles set up for the older elementary in our gym

using flash lights to find any remaining eggs

A few pointers if you buy the hunt and decide to do it.  One, the puzzle can take 1 minute or it can take 20.  My younger kids knew right away that the clue was on the BACK side of the puzzle and put it together upside down.  The older kids NEVER figured it out - even when I gave them the clue to "look at it in a different way".  I had to finally tell them to turn it over.  I've done ER's with a LOT of different groups and it's funny how some of them always overlook the obvious answers :)  Monitor your time so you know how long to give them.  We ran out of time and I had to give them the black light clue so they could finish before their parents came.  Second pointer - I decided to just have a regular egg hunt and hide clues in just a few of the eggs (maybe 20 eggs had clues and the rest were candy/prizes).  In my lesson plan, I suggested figuring out how many eggs you needed and put a clue in each egg.  That was more thinking than I wanted to do ;) I just made sure to hide the clue eggs in obvious places, because inevitably there is at least one egg that isn't found until the next fall ;) lol

Lastly, the Scripture clue (the one I provide), needs to be printed out on cardstock.  I didn't think about this ahead of time and they had a hard time putting it together.  Once they actually got it together, it was impossible to read...which kind of defeats the purpose since we do the activity to teach them about Easter - and the Scripture was key!

I hope you enjoy doing the egg hunt.  I would definitely do this again with other groups.  We all really enjoyed it - and I loved that it made my egg hunt last longer than 5 minutes!! :) 

12 Scripture Based/Religious Escape Rooms!

I have started writing escape rooms for my kids and youth at church - just for fun :)  I'm selling them on my teachers pay teachers site or, if you prefer a different platform, they are in my Etsy store to earn a little extra money for me and my family.  To help you decide which is the best one for your group, here is a list and description of all of the ones I've made so far - including their links and cost.  Hopefully having them all in one place will help you make a decision on which would work best for your group and occasion!  I base the cost on how many of the puzzles I have to create and how much work you have to do, as well as how much you have to buy.  To aid in the cost, the majority of my escape rooms use the same locks/boxes.  The locks and hasp you see in the below picture I use repeatedly but I don't use that lockbox anymore - too many locks don't fit in it.  Instead, I use these - and they cost less!  Have a question or suggestion for a new one?  Feel free to email me at noeylaurie@gmail.com

1.  Scripture Based Escape Room $6 (etsy link) - This was my second ER that I made.  It's the most viewed and sells the most...but in my opinion, it's not my best one. lol I think it sells more because of the name (and I wrote a separate blog about it) - but pretty much all of my ER's are Scripture based.  This one just has a LOT of scripture in it that needs to be looked up.  This one only costs $6 because there are some clues you will need to put together yourself.  

Here is the description:  

"Step by step instructions on how to carry out an Escape room for Tweens and Middle schoolers (and even high school and adults).  Includes instructions, puzzles, links to amazon to buy locks, etc. and pictures of our group and the set up.  It includes a lot of scripture to look up, math (adding to 1000 so you’ll need a calculator) and obviously some logic J  My 7 kids took one hour to complete it (and I gave a few helps when they got stuck).  I am going to modify it and do it with the staff at church in a 20-30 minute activity.  All you need to do is come up with a fun story – why are you locked in the room?  Why do you need to get out? We decided that we were locked in the furnace with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and had to escape! J  Whatever your scenario – good luck!!"

2.  Paul and Silas escape room using praise songs. $8 (etsy link) This one was one of my favorites to write!  I charged $8 for this one because I made and included all the clues - there is very little you will need to do except print it out and read it and set it up!  

"Read Acts 16:16-40 from the Bible or find a children’s illustrated Bible with the story of Paul and Silas in jail.  Talk with the kids/youth about what happened before, during and after – make sure and mention how they SANG praises to God even in their darkest time.  Ask questions and let them ask you questions.  Then, tell them that they are going to be put in jail just like Paul and Silas.  To break out, they will need to decipher various clues that all have to do with praise songs and hymns!  Once they open up the final box, it will trigger the earthquake that will set them free J 

All of these clues need basic problem solving skills and one person will need to know how to read basic music.  Kids as young as 4^th/5^th grade could figure it out (perhaps offer them one free “clue” if they get stuck) and you could even use it with adults.   They may not take as long as an hour but you could make it more difficult by hiding some of the clues instead of leaving them out in the open like I suggest."

I did this one with my 4th/5th graders.  They needed some clues but did well.  I had one that could read music and one had done the pig pen cipher before.  Believe it or not, the hardest thing for them was trying to figure out what to do with a youtube video song on the ipad (the instructions were on the back of the ipad - they just never turned it over! lol).  I think that, besides the large group escape room, that this one is one of the hardest, and I would not use it with children younger than 4/5th grade.

3.  Church Library Escape Room.  $6 (etsy link)  I have sold the least of these - probably because your church needs to have an actual church library to do it, and many churches don't have those anymore.  But it was a lot of fun! I did it with two different groups of 4th/5th graders and it took them between 45 minutes and an hour to escape.  You actually use the call numbers and books on the shelves so the library is a must...

"Can your preteens/teens escape the library in time!? To escape they will need to know how to look up scripture, and find call numbers in a library.

This escape room is a bit easier for the participants and easier to set up. But a lot of fun! In hindsight, I would probably add a few steps or make the clues harder so that next time they take a little bit longer. You can easily change the clues to make it last longer or even make it a shorter time. The setting is a church library and I did use the call numbers so you'll need to have those two things for this to work. I don't charge much for these because there is still some work you have to put in - like pulling your own call numbers. You will need to buy a few supplies (almost everything was used in the other escape room with the exception of one thing which can be bought online or at ACMoore - and probably michael's)."

4.  Parable Break out Box - $6 (etsy link)

I wrote this one because I thought it'd be a neat change, and my kids have both mentioned how they've done break out boxes at school - so I thought the kids would relate.  It's the same concept of an escape room - except they are breaking into a box and not out of a room :)  Usually, there's some kind of reward inside the box.  Also, I thought it could be used if you had a larger group and you could split up and have a competition!  

"There are four boxes total and you have to figure out how to get into each one.  You can have as many groups as you have materials for.  If you have a small group of 3-5 kids then you can form two teams and have them race or just give the group a certain amount of time (45 min-one hour) and see if they can beat it.  If you have a larger group, then you could make 3 small groups and let them race each other.  I would suggest around 5 or less on a team.  You could make as many of these as you want if you have more than 15 people, but then you would need to modify clue #1 which tells each group to find their hidden key in a certain spot in the room.  You could go to the website and make more word jumbles (“under a cabinet”, “under a lamp”, etc) or you could just give two groups the instructions to look “under a chair”.  Not really a big deal.  You would just need to make sure your room had at least two chairs, two tables, and/or two pictures.  The other clues would all be the same.

This “Break in” game is based on four parables – parable of the sower, talents, lost sheep and the good Samaritan."  

 5.  Christmas themed Escape room!   - $7 

This is a best seller :) Evidently people like doing escape rooms around Christmas! lol  It's not a difficult one to set up and shouldn't be too hard to complete - you could make it harder or easier depending on your age group.  I'm thinking this would be a great Christmas time fundraiser for families/small groups to sign up and complete!

"Since this one is not a complicated set up, you should be able to have some fun extras and put some time in for decorations 😊 The extras and décor/story really help pull together an escape room.  I set up our large nativity scene in a room and used the manger scene as a prop.  I turned the whole room into the stable where Jesus was born.  You could read the birth story of Jesus as your intro, including the 3 Wisemen.  Then, you could read the following Scripture:

The Escape to Egypt
13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”[c]

We "pretended" that they were locked in the room and I just hung the lock on the door handle :) improvise!

A couple of my 5th graders figuring out the Rebus clue. This was more difficult than I thought and they'll need a few clues.  

I realize that they were not in the stable when the wisemen actually visited – and you could mention that to the group.  It just makes for a fun set up 😊  This could also be done in January when the 3 wise men are celebrated!

6.  Large Group Escape Room - $20 - this one took me many weeks to organize and write.  A fellow Christian Educator asked if I had an escape room written for a large group and I said no.  I also said I didn't think that would even be possible.  But, after a lot of brainstorming and reworking, I came up with an idea! :) I provided many instructions and clues (14 total!) - hence the higher price.  If you do this escape room please let me know how it goes!  There are so many little details involved in this one - I'd be interested to know if you had to tweak anything for your group.

"This escape room is different than my other escape rooms.  It does not have a flow chart because the set up is different.  You will need to get 14 large manila envelopes.  Each envelope will include 2 unrelated clues.  You will assign one envelope to every 1-2 people depending on how many you have in your group.  You can have as few as 14 people and they get one envelope each, or you can have two on each envelope and have 28 people, or you can have two groups of 28 go against each other in a contest (you would just to buy/print double of everything)!  The options are endless!  I would recommend using this game with 14-60 people. 

There are four locks in this game.  The first three have either four numbers, letters or colors.  The last one will need a key.  Apart from the locks, hasp and lock box, there are not many supplies to buy.  Each envelope contains two clues that will HELP figure out two of these numbers/letters/symbols.  The two clues in the envelopes are not related to each other, but they are related to a clue in another envelope.  It is the job of the participants to figure out who has the other half of their clue and work together.  Some will be obvious but others will not.  The challenge of this escape room?  Each person or pair will be working with two other pairs…and those pairs will be working with another pair and so on.  Everyone will be vying for the attention of everyone else so the “key” is communication, communication and communication!  (and patience ;)" 

7.  New Year's Eve Break out box $7

I haven't gotten to do this one, but I had a few people try it out and give me feedback - they loved it!  You can set it up a variety of ways, use it with all different ages and make it last as long as you want.  This is probably the most "fun" break out box/escape room I've made as it contains games to play as you count down! :)

Description:

This Break out box is based on 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW creation; the OLD has gone, the NEW has come!" Out with the old and in with new :) You can expand on this verse as much as you want. The idea behind this "break out box" is to complete 10 activities before midnight (or you could have a "pretend" midnight if you have younger children). The activities/clues are to be hidden inside of 10 balloons that are labeled with the numbers 10, 9, 8, etc. Start with number ten and "countdown" to number one - hopefully in time! :) some of the activities have nothing to do with breaking into the box - they just have to be completed before moving on (ie, writing down your new year's resolutions and guessing who wrote which one). Other activities, when completed, provide you with a clue to unlock one of the locks on the lock box. You need 3 lock boxes for this break out box - one main box that has 3 locks and two boxes that contain materials your youth will need to solve other clues. Make sure and fill your final box with something fun for the new year! Maybe party favors and hats...or candy? Whatever you can think of! Like most escape rooms/break out boxes, doing this with around 10 people is probably best. Fewer is fine as well. However, since many of these activities are group activities, everyone will be included much of the time. So if you have 15-20 people you could probably make it work! If you have the funds, you could buy twice the supplies and make it a contest as well :) have fun and Happy new year!!

Note - this game can be used for any year. one clue does provide trivia for 2019 but you can easily google "trivia for the year ...." and replace my questions and answers with your own - just make sure your multiple choice answer letters match your lock combination.

8.  Valentine's Day Escape Room $6 (etsy link)

"Love is Patient, Love is Kind...
Using Scripture, puzzles, candy and more, escape the room by solving 4 puzzles and piecing together a heart puzzle that will give you the final clue! Best for ages 4th-adult, but you could alter it to make it simpler for younger elementary.
You will need 4 lock boxes and locks, or you can get creative and construct your own so you don't have to spend money. You will also need to buy some Valentine's Day candy and some decor :) Have fun!"

9. Easter Egg Hunt Escape Room $3.50

"Couple your egg hunt with an escape room! You won't need many supplies for this except for a directional lock, puzzle, easter eggs and candy. Different ages can do this together or you can gear it towards a specific age as I have provided you with instructions for an "easy" hunt and for a "hard" hunt. Most of the work is on your own so this escape room plan is only $3. It's simple to understand, simple to put together but LOTS of fun :) It'll add the little extra fun and "sustenance" to the egg hunt that you've been looking for :) One of the clues does involved Scripture of the resurrection - don't forget to explain to the children that THIS is why we celebrate Easter!
I think you could do this with 20 children if you split them up into two groups - "searchers" and "solvers" :)

10. Want to write your own escape room? Here are a few templates that I've used that help a lot. They're just blank flow charts that I put together for some of my own escape rooms.

11  Jonah!  Help Jonah escape from the whale :)  $6 (etsy link)

"This ER has 3 puzzles and needs 3 lock boxes and 3 locks. The 3 puzzles concentrate on 3 aspects of the story worth going over with your group. One, the significance of the number 3 in the Bible (and in the Jonah story), listening to God and obeying God, and Jonah's prayer (and other well known prayers in the Bible).

One of the puzzles you will need to set up - the other 2 I provide. Included is a flow chart on how the boxes work together, set up instructions, a list of materials that I use and recommend, and two puzzles. The third puzzle I include instructions for, but you need to set up.

One puzzle is best shown projected up in the room on powerpoint."

12. My most recent Break out Box is "Are you my Neighbor?". $6 (etsy link)
This was a suggestion made by another Christian Educator - and I really enjoyed making it! It's also in honor of Mr. Roger's day :) Since the theme of this one is "Are you my Neighbor?", I went on a search for puzzles and challenges that required teamwork. I wanted every aspect of this to be centered around helping, encouraging, and loving your "neighbor". There are 4 puzzles - one where they will be handcuffed to their chairs to perform a task, another where they work together in a group to complete a physical puzzle that includes the Scripture from Luke (Good Samaritan), and two mental tasks. Oh, and there are water guns involved :)

An added challenge for this break out box is a hidden element! :) Tell the group at the beginning that they only have 30 minutes to complete this box BUT that they can earn up to 30 minutes more IF they say or do something specific. What exactly? Well, we won't tell them :) But if any of them say or do something nice or encouraging for their neighbor, then you announce, "You have earned five more minutes". Don't tell them why...eventually they will probably catch on and start doing more :)

13.  My Christmas Escape room is one of my best sellers, so I decided to write a new one for this year that is geared for elementary age students (here is the TPT link)!  Usually I gear them towards older elem/youth or adults.  But this one would be best for your elementary kiddos :) 

It's one of my first ones that has an opening story for you to read as well.  It sets up your escape room :)  Description from Etsy: "My first escape room geared specifically to elementary age children! could you do this with youth? Yes, you could. You would just want to add in some extra surprises, elements, etc to make it a little harder. Your elementary kids should finish this in 30-45 minutes (you will probably want to allow them to ask for one clue). There are 3 puzzles to solve and two locks to unlock.  The clues do require some spelling, but as long as you have some kids that are older and can read/spell, then you are fine. I wouldn't do this with a class of K kiddos. Can your group escape in time?? Or will they be spending almost all of Christmas Eve stuck in their Sunday school room all alone?? ;)

I also have a religious Christmas escape room for youth/adults...and if you have done it or plan on doing it, then you would already have all the supplies you'd need for this one - except the hasp! Have fun!"

I have a bundle available with ALL 12 of the Escape Rooms/Break out boxes on TPT.  You save $10 by buying them all - which is like 1 1/2 Escape Rooms for free ;) 

I also have a holiday bundle that includes xmas, new years, valentine's day and easter.  
On Etsy, you can buy a bundle with all 6 non-Holiday escape rooms (buy 5 get one free!). 

If you have an idea for an Escape room or a theme you'd like to do, shoot me an email!  Maybe I could write one for you!  noeylaurie@gmail.com

Thanks for checking out my products and my Etsy and teachers pay teachers site!  God bless!

-Laurie

Escape Room!

At one of our 4th/5th grade monthly TNT (The New Tweens) meeting, I designed an Escape Room for them!  It was lots of fun!  They had one hour to escape the fiery furnace with shadrach, meshach and abednego (their idea ;).  they finished with three seconds to spare :) Yea!  I had to give them a few hints, but overall they did it themselves.

They had to get these 4 locks undone to get their final clue which was in the lockbox!  

 This is all I had out in the open for the kids.  The ipad, one of the Scripture games and the Bibles they would need to look up the Scriptures. 

This group of pics and the black light was used at the end, but also to throw them off at the beginning :)  I got a few of them ;)

Here they are trying to look up all the math scripture problems.  There was a lot to look up, but they're pros so they did it in no time!  The math took longer than looking up the scriptures :)

I decided to incorporate Easter Eggs and hid them around the room - when they found them all they had the clue!

Wordsearch!  The hardest part was trying to figure out why this wordsearch was a clue ;)

This was the funniest part.  They had to weigh 4 things that were in the room – the only thing that fit on the scale was the Bibles.  None of them could figure out how to weigh something that doesn’t fit (by weighing yourself and then holding it) so they were trying all kinds of things.  I’m still laughing thinking about it J

Unlocking the final lock!! They finished with 3 seconds to spare!!  Whew...no one was stuck in the furnace :) 

If you'd like to buy my lesson plan for this Escape Room (and all the supplies and links to buy the items I used), go here to my teachers pay teachers store.  It's only $6!  I love doing escape rooms with my tweens but they aren't easy to come up with!  They're time consuming.  If you've ever designed one, please let me know - I'll trade plans with you :)