6 Winter Escape Rooms to Get You Through to Spring Break

Coming back after winter break is hard for both teachers and students. Everyone has gotten used to sleeping in and not following a set schedule. It's cold outside and no one wants to get out of their warm beds in the morning and face the elements to get to school.

One thing that helps ease back into the routine of school days (aside from lots of practice and refreshers on classroom procedures!) is to keep lessons fresh and exciting.

My kids love doing escape rooms, and I love seeing them learn while having fun. A few weeks ago I had some of the clue envelopes stacked on my desk in preparation for a Christmas Around the World escape room; one of my students saw it and got super excited, then told the rest of the class we were "doing another one of those things". For the next couple of days, I had a few kids ask me multiple times a day if it was time to do the escape room. I've never had so many kids excited for a lesson as when I use the escape room format.

Thankfully, I have several escape rooms all ready to go to get us through the rest of the winter.

First, there's Escape the Arctic Tundra, which focuses on syllables. While practicing with syllables, students also learn the names of various Arctic animals. (Get it here in my shop or here in my TPT store!)

Why should learning about holidays of other cultures stop with Christmas Around the World activities? Whether or not you and your community celebrate Chinese New Year, I always think it is wonderful for children to learn about special days that others celebrate. The skill focus for this escape room is comparing numbers, but students will also get to learn about symbols and customs of this holiday. (Find it here in my shop or here in my TPT store.)

Groundhog Day is always a fun day with young kids; the excitement of predicting, the reassurance that winter really won't last forever. It also makes a great time to talk about opposites, which is the focus of this Groundhog-Day themed escape room. (Grab it here in my shop or here in my TPT store.)

The 100th Day of School! A milestone worth celebrating. This escape room focuses on numbers to 100 (of course) with hundreds charts, ten-frames, and base-10 formats. (Get it here in my shop or here in my TPT store.)

Valentine's Day has always been a personal favorite of mine--mostly because it's also my birthday. As a kid, it was the perfect birthday. It wasn't a big enough holiday, like Christmas, to overshadow my birthday, but we always got to have a party day at school. This escape room gives students the chance to practice matching upper and lower case letters with puzzles, "I Have, Who Has?", write the room, and a cut and paste activity. (Find it here in my shop or here in my TPT store.)

Presidents Day may be a minor one as far as holidays go, but it is important in the knowledge of history it bestows upon our students. The skill focus for this escape room is positional words, learned in the context of important American monuments. (Snag it here in my shop or here in my TPT store.)

Hopefully fun activities like these will make the winter fly by for you and your class, so you can get to spring break and warmer weather!

Happy Teaching!