Many teachers from the Southwestern Union attended the North American Division Teachers' Convention in Chicago. And the convention was a blessing in disguise. We were exposed to various teaching strategies and fun activities for kids to do in our classrooms. We had different sessions to attend and I fell in love with one of the activities in the session which was entitled, “Escape the Room.”
What is this “Escape the Room?” If well-crafted, it’s a challenge offering a fresh and exciting way to introduce a new concept. Children are exposed to problem-solving scenarios and in completing tasks to escape from the scenarios. In other words, “Escape the Room” addresses boredom, changing our classroom into adventures that captivate our students and prepare them for this ever-changing world.
Can we have “Escape the Room” in our multigrade classrooms? Yes, we surely can! What should we be looking for when we create our “Escape the Room” activity?
•Real learning task
•Easy to use
•Critical thinking
•Teamwork
•The AH-HA Moment
As I love to try out new stuff with my kids, I had assigned Thursdays for “Escape the Room” activities and the score they received was entered as my test grades. I have done many “Escape the Room” activities. And kids loved and still love it. They wait for Thursday to play “Escape the Room.” I still remember my first “Escape the Room” activity I gave my class a few years back. Yes, it was an activity used from Elementary Encounter Bible, Grade 5, Unit 5.7, and it was about Jonah.
My activity was named “Escape from The Whale’s Stomach.” The scenario was – That they just fell into the mouth of the whale and are sliding down the esophagus and landing in the stomach. It is cold, wet, stinky, dark with very little oxygen to breath. They must break all the five codes to escape from the whale’s stomach.
They had activity sheets with five different kinds of questions. For example, unscramble the memory text, multiple choice questions, fill in the blanks, match the following, and solve the riddle.
The first code cracked gave access for a sweater hanging on the ribs of the whale to keep them warm. The second code when cracked gave access to a waterproof suit, floating on the digestive juice of the stomach which kept them dry.
The third code cracked gave access to a mask and an air freshener bottle to stop that stinky smell that they were in. The fourth code cracked gave access to a flashlight stuck in the pyloric valve of the whale to see where they were going.
The fifth code cracked gave access to an oxygen tank containing enough oxygen for 72 hrs. that was swallowed earlier by the whale. With all these tools it made it easy for them to escape.
The activity was timed. I wanted to measure the learning outcome with accuracy in urgency, and if they didn’t get out in time the digestive process would start, and they would be digested. Kids loved it and immediately started the activity. There was suspense in the air. There was pin drop silence. I could hear everyone's heartbeat. Nobody talked; all were trying to survive. The class was quite still until one of the students cracked the last code and shouted “Thank you JESUS! I survived.”
The rest of the class started to speed up. Some were making mistakes. Some were trying different tactics to crack the code. Ultimately 90% of the class cracked the code in the given time. We had our AH-HA moment!!!
So, what happened to the other 10%? Well, they like the rest, started the activity with excitement, but did not follow the directions correctly. They were so busy thinking about how to finish it without paying attention to what to do to finish it. “Escape the Room” has the potential to never leave any child behind or unnoticed. Thank God we have so many Ah-ha moments.
Hats off to all of you, and God Bless!
By Alwina Kindo
Alwina teaches at New Orleans Adventist Academy.
