Using a Breakout Box or Escape Room puzzles in my high school Spanish classes the past few years has been, by far, my students’ favorite part of the year.  And to be completely honest, it has been mine, too!  While it took my colleagues and I many hours of prep time, creating escape room puzzles was worth it!  If you and your students are up for a challenge, this is the way to go! They will be thoroughly engaged, use critical thinking skills, collaborate, and stay in the target language.

What do I need to Create Escape Room Puzzles?

The Supplies

Breakout EDU

Breakout EDU has all of the supplies you need in one kit! You can purchase complete Escape Room kits for your classroom or school.  The kit comes with boxes, locks, interchangeable combos, invisible ink pen, UV flashlight, and access to the platform filled with game ideas.  This is what we use, and they work perfectly!

Create Your Own Box

The website also has a library filled with pre-made escape room puzzles. I haven’t used any of the World Language breakout games on this website.  My colleagues and I have created our own puzzles about La Guerra Sucia and Artistas Hispanos. You can even purchase my most recent Escape Room about Saving Navidad here or the 7 Wonders of the Hispanic World Escape Room or the Inca Empire.

If you don’t have the funds to purchase entire kits from Breakout Edu, you could always get creative and design your own boxes.  Purchase a toolbox, hasp, and locks from your local home improvement store or even Amazon.  Assemble your own boxes!  There are all kinds of locks like number locks, letter or word locks, arrow locks, and even color locks! But I would say that the basic necessities are having locks with keys or letters/numbers for students to really get the feeling that they are in an escape room.

I applied for a grant for the Spanish department at my school to purchase a Breakout Edu kit and we were awarded the money! It was a great addition to our department’s resources.

Digital Escape Rooms Puzzles

Creating your own boxes can still add up to a lot of money.  Maybe you want to go the electronic way and design puzzles, but rather than have the tangible box, you could use Google Forms.  Create the Forms sheet with the correct answers being your clues (that gives you more leeway with types of answers, too!).  Each group of students should have an electronic device to plug in their answers.  The answer must be 100% accurate to win! Students will still have tons of fun!

How Do I Design Escape Room Puzzles?

Designing your own Breakout Box takes time, effort, and a lot of brain power.  If you plan to make your own, make sure that you have enough planning time! Here are my suggestions for designing your own escape room puzzles:

• Step 1 is to create a story or situation for your students.  For example, in my Spanish 3 class, we study La Guerra Sucia during a Public/Private Identity Unit.  We designed a Breakout Box around the idea that students are the son/daughter of a desaparecido.  They must follow the clues to discover who their real parents and grandparents are.  You want your students to feel that they have an urgency to solving the puzzle and escaping! 
• Then, step 2 is create the clues!  One of the trickiest parts about designing the clues is making sure the answers will align with the types of locks you have.  In my classroom set, we have 4 locks total, 2 of which must be 3 or 4 digit number answers.  In a language class, we usually shy away from using numbers, so we had to get creative in our clues and answers.

Types of Puzzles

• Facts and Data: Provide students with a brochure, posters, website, etc. that shows facts, data, numbers, etc.  Then form your question around the info they see.
• Word Games: Crossword puzzles, Scrabble boards, cryptic codes, etc. are all perfect for designing clues.  The answers could be letters or numbers if you get creative. 
• Puzzles: Cut up a piece of art or a poster.  Students must re-assemble it.  Maybe there is a riddle that accompanies it; maybe they need to find something in the puzzle?
• Grammar: You could devote one puzzle to grammar review.  Provide students with a text excerpt, letter, email, ransom note, etc.  They could search for mistakes or count agreement – the answer could be numbers or letters.
• Images: Provide students with a variety of images, paintings, drawings, etc. and possibly a riddle.  Maybe they have to count how many people, suns, homes, etc.  Maybe they need to find the similarity between all of the images.
• Maps: Give students an itinerary to follow.  Or, they could look at a train schedule and the times associated with the map.  They could also find the distance between two locations.

The possibilities are endless!

Some key things to remember as you design or implement a Breakout Box or Escape Room Puzzles:

• A lack of instructions is okay!  Escape rooms never give you instructions.  You must find out where to start and what to do with the objects, riddles, images, etc. that are in front of you!
• Celebrate their victories!  Purchase my Spanish Breakout Box signs for students to take pictures with after they breakout. Just like at a normal Escape Room, students will pose with the appropriate signs based on victory or loss.
• Give your students hints.  You can limit the amount of hints you will give, so it encourages them to use them wisely! I always said the group that finishes first gets 5 extra credit points, but every hint you use reduces the potential points by one!

If you are looking to start with an Escape Room, but don’t have the time to make your own right now, check out my escape rooms! Each comes with different styles of puzzles and you can get English or Spanish versions of most of them!

• La Comida Escape Room (Novice)
• La Escuela Escape Room (Novice)
• La Casa Escape Room (Novice)
• 7 Wonders of the Hispanic World – Spanish, English, Bundle
• Inca Empire – Spanish, English, Bundle
• Hispanic Artists (Kahlo, Botero, Dali, Rivera, Picasso) – Spanish, English, Bundle
• Help Santa Save La Navidad – Spanish

Have you used Breakout Boxes or Escape Room Puzzles in your class?  What works well for your students?