Capture your students’ interests and get their gears turning with these totally awesome escape room activities for kids of all ages! As feet begin to drag and motivation starts to lack at the end of the school year, these activities can really help with engagement. Here you’ll find tons of options to provide a thrilling escape activity no matter what age your kiddies are!
Elementary School (K-5) Escape Rooms
1. Cracking the Classroom Code: Robot Malfunction
We absolutely love this free resource because it includes escape rooms for ALL levels from Kindergarten to fifth grade (kids ages 5 to 10). This entire experience reviews math concepts learned at the various grade levels and makes for the perfect end-of-term fun activity!
Learn More: Teresa Kwant
2. Figurative Language Escape Challenge
This is a simple, straightforward, and free activity that will have your learners use different forms of figurative language to solve a series of puzzles. Everything you’ll need is printable so there are no hidden costs or props to source.! This is a great activity for a third to fifth-grade skill level.
Learn More: Teresa Kwant
3. Growth Mindset Escape Room
In these free escape rooms, every one of your students will have an opportunity to go against the clock to solve puzzles. The best part? These escape rooms need no prep! We’d call that a win for busy teachers who have a mountain of grading and other paperwork to tackle at the end of the year!
Learn More: Think Tank Teacher
4. Escape the Island: Reading Escape Room
Escape the island! Challenge your students to use their reading skills to escape the island with the task cards and decoders. This freebie requires a little more prep than the previous ones, but it is SO worth it! This puzzle game is best geared toward upper-level elementary students.
Learn More: Teach, Create, Motivate
5. Science Tools Escape Room
This brilliant resource has been designed for individuals to complete on their own, but it can easily be adapted for bigger groups. Your kiddos will love trying to escape from the ten different escape room adventures included in this pack. Each task includes a question with multiple choice answers that lead them to either a positive picture or a picture that asks them to try again.
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
6. Asteroid Collision Escape Room
We just love this Asteroid Collision digital escape room! It covers a whole bunch of elementary science and math concepts at the same time and quite frankly, who doesn’t love the idea of using a “Big Space Blaster”? Let your second graders blast off and decode the hints for this fun escape challenge.
Learn More: Asteroid Collision 2nd Grade
7. Poetry Escape Room
If you struggle to motivate your students when it comes to poetry, then this escape room is for you! This activity incorporates a range of written, creative, and physical challenges, including jigsaw puzzles and a Kahoot, to engage your little learners. They won’t want it to end!
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
8. Secret Agent Escape Room
Calling all secret agents! This engaging breakout game tasks your kiddos with becoming a spy. They navigate ELA, math, science, and social studies activities to find all of the gear they need for their mission. They’ll cultivate their academic skills and earn their spy certificate in the process. How exciting!
Learn More: Two Sharp Pencils
9. Elf Escape Room
It can be difficult to keep your kiddies’ attention as you near the Winter break. Let Elfy help you motivate them with this free escape room that’s just perfect for the holidays. They’ll have such a good time helping Elfy escape the classroom, that they won’t even realize they are learning!
Learn More: Teach Starter
10. 4th Grade Math Review Escape Room
Do you hear an audible groan from your class when it’s time for math? Their venture through the jungle, as they complete each daring task, will have them flexing their math muscles and make boring math lessons a thing of the past. Bonus points: it’s aligned with Common Core Standards! This free escape room will be sure to help liven up your next math lesson for sure!
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
11. Stormy Night Parts of Speech Virtual Escape Room
Let’s face it; most students don’t enjoy reviewing parts of speech. You’ll love this free resource because it does a fantastic job of piquing your kiddos’ interests and getting them hooked. They’ll be intrigued by the suspense of the storyline and love that they can complete it in a group or as an individual activity.
Learn More: Mama Teaches
12. 5th Grade Figurative Language Escape Room
If you or your kids have never attempted an escape room before, this activity might be especially helpful. There is an accompanying video, where you can watch students complete the entire activity before you complete it with your class. It’s also perfectly silly in a way that will keep your students focused and entertained!
Learn More: YouTube
13. Let’s Cooperate Code Cracker
There’s nothing better than an activity focused on fostering cooperation in the classroom! Your learners will love working through the six puzzles, each a different subject topic, to discover the lock combination. This is a perfect challenge for the beginning of the school year when you are first building a positive classroom environment.
Learn More: Teach Starter
14. Place Value Digital Escape Room
If you’re working on place value with your kiddos, then this escape room will be perfect for your classroom! The virtual activity is free, and it includes a print-out answer key to go with it. If you’re short on time and looking for a good low-prep activity, then look no further!
Learn More: Mama Teaches
Middle School (6-8) Escape Rooms
15. Escape the Mummy’s Tomb
You probably loved decoding hieroglyphics as a student learning about ancient Egyptians and we know your class will enjoy it too in this free Ancient Egypt Tomb Room escape room activity! They must work to solve a challenging series of questions based on reading comprehension.
Learn More: Ela Buffet
16. Team Building Math-Based Escape Room
Looking for a math-themed escape room for your middle schoolers? This one has your students team up to solve math crossword puzzles and crack the code! In this free educational escape activity, they’ll use teamwork to fill in math vocabulary based on given definitions. Once they translate the symbols, they’ll put them in a ready-to-go Google Form.
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
17. Cells Science Escape Room
The free cells digital escape room is a totally immersive experience for your class! The best part is that it is available in English, Spanish, and even Portuguese! This activity allows your kiddies to show off their knowledge of cells in an engaging way and is best suited for middle or high schoolers!
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
18. Escape History – French & Indian War
This free history resource is a well-rounded and engaging activity that can be a competitive escape game for both online and in-person learning! Your kids will solve a variety of puzzles that correspond to the French and Indian War and go through a timeline of events and biographies from that period of time.
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
19. Digital Escape Room Challenge: A Dream Within a Dream
In this free challenge, your kiddies will find themselves locked in a Gothic mansion in their dreams. This digital escape room challenge is based on Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Dream Within a Dream.” It allows your students to demonstrate their understanding of figurative language while having some escape room fun.
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
20. Halloween-themed Virtual Escape Room
Let your middle schoolers use this free math-based Virtual Escape Room based on John Carpenter’s Halloween as a self-checking activity. It requires them to think critically to solve six questions that deal with finding slopes and graphing linear equations. This one is perfect for some independent work!
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
21. Area of Polygons and Composite Shapes Escape Room
This escape room for sixth graders can be done digitally or in person and is super easy to implement! This is a fantastic resource to encourage collaboration among the students and get them thinking critically during an escape session. They’ll need to draw on those math skills to work out the areas of different tricky shapes like polygons!
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
22. Escape from Narnia
We love this free digital ‘Escape from Narnia’ activity! Kids tend to love anything fantasy, but the best part about this one is that it’s a fantastic adventure that is also educational! Your class will need to think critically and use reading comprehension to escape, though they’ll be having so much fun, they might not want to!
Learn More: St Albans Library
23. Fractions, Decimals, and Percents Digital Escape Room
It’s no secret that kids always seem to struggle with fractions and percentages. This fractions, decimals, and percent digital escape room will keep them engaged and thinking critically as they learn to understand each process involved in order to escape in a fun series of puzzles!
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
24. Elements of Fiction Escape Room
Looking to spice up your fiction unit? This escape room will upgrade the standard plot diagram and take your students on an exciting adventure as they explore conflict, plot, characterization, point-of-view, setting, and theme. It even includes a pre and post-assessment to help evaluate your students’ understanding. What more could you need!?
Learn More: The Daring English Teacher
25. Health Digital Escape Room
This virtual escape room option for reviewing important health concepts like drugs, alcohol, smoking, and more is perfect for middle schoolers. Let your kiddos jump into this imaginary world and help the Timberwolves basketball team as they prepare to give a speech about health and wellness. Fun and important!
Learn More: English, Oh My
26. States of Matter Virtual Escape Room
Another free virtual escape room; this one is perfect for reviewing the states of matter. Challenge your kids to unlock the puzzle by exploring the periodic table, completing a matching challenge, and much more! Better yet, it’s versatile and can be used at home and in the classroom.
Learn More: States Of Matter
27. Persuasive Writing Escape Room
When your writing lessons are met with resistance, this persuasive writing escape room might just be a game changer! Your learners will jump feet first into a variety of physical, written, and creative challenges to tackle the elements of persuasive writing. Can they complete the nine tasks and get out in time?
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
28. Executive Functioning Escape Room
Are your middle school students constantly struggling with their organization; losing their papers, forgetting their homework, and constantly losing their pens? If so, this is the escape room you have been dreaming of! Set your students to work either individually or in groups to take on the tasks that will test their working memory. Could it get any better? Yes, it’s free!
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
29. Cinderella Escapes Virtual Escape Room
In this free digital escape room, created by the Henika District Library in Wayland, Michigan, your students will help Cinderella escape to the ball! They’ll complete mazes and puzzles to find Cinderella’s fairy godmother and, of course, get directions to Prince Charming’s castle. Who doesn’t love a good fairytale adventure?
Learn More: Cinderella Escapes
30. The Human Body Digital Escape Room
Oh no! Your little brother found Dad’s shrinking machine and has made the house and everything in it tiny! It’s up to your students to find Dad’s notes and clues to figure out how to reverse the machine and switch everything back. This fun and suspenseful activity will have your class reviewing their learning on anatomy and will spark their competitiveness as they race to beat the clock!
Learn More: English, Oh My
31. MLA Format Escape Room
If you teach English, then you know the ever-frustrating battle of navigating MLA format. Luckily, this breakout activity does the hard work for you in a way that’ll leave your kiddies excited to keep learning. After decoding, matching, and sorting, they’ll be pros at citing their sources in no time!
Learn More: The Daring English Teacher
32. Escape from Wonderland Digital Escape Room
Created by the Moultrie-Colquitt County Library System in Moultrie, Georgia, this free virtual escape adventure has your kiddos join Alice as she falls down the rabbit hole. They’ll complete puzzles and riddles as they rush to escape Wonderland before the time runs out. We bet you’ll even want to join in on the fun yourself!
Learn More: Escape from Wonderland
33. Black Panther Writing Escape Room
Add some superhero thrills to your writing review with this free Black Panther digital escape room activity! Have your middle schoolers work on capitalization, pronouns, commas, and more while exploring the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is sure to make the usually boring work on perfecting grammar skills a whole lot more interesting! What’s not to love?
Learn More: Escape Edventures
High School (9-12) Escape rooms
34. Murder Mystery Escape Room
Do we really even need to explain why this one would be insanely engaging and fun? It’s a murder mystery with a thrilling escape! Who doesn’t love those? Also, who doesn’t love a free one of those!? This Murder Mystery escape room encourages your kiddies to get their logical thinking caps on and use teamwork to solve the mystery and escape!
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
35. Quadratics Escape Room
For most kids, quadratics word problems might scream “Boring!”. If you’re a teacher, you know that your students tend to dislike word problems. In this fun series, they’ll get to experience escape room puzzles that put their abilities to the test in a totally not boring way!
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
36. Ecology Escape Room
This ecology escape room makes for a great review activity! Your learners will complete decoding challenges on five levels to find hidden clues, covering topics involving ecology. This resource is perfect for biology classes and the fact that you are able to use this in person or virtually is extremely helpful!
Learn More: Tes
37. Cold War Digital Escape Room
The Cold War digital escape room is an exciting way to take your students back in time following events from the Truman Doctrine up to the Space Race. What’s great about this resource is that your learners definitely have to know the content in order to break out from the digital room! No cutting corners here!
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
38. Harry Potter-themed Digital Escape Room
Who doesn’t love Harry Potter? This free digital Harry Potter-themed escape room is relaxed but still engaging for your students as they put their reading and critical thinking skills to work. It’s the perfect activity for winding down at the end of the term or the end of the school year!
Learn More: Hogwarts Digital Escape Room
39. Congruent Triangles Escape Room
This congruent triangle escape room includes instructions for running this activity either in person or digitally. It will encourage your high schoolers to review the content and then test their skills before a bigger assessment hits them! This one is great for having your students work together and coach each other through solving each of the problems!
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
40. Genetics Escape Room
This pick turns Punett squares into an escape room activity. Picture the scene; your learners are trapped in a mad scientist’s laboratory where he wants to modify them genetically! They’ll need to use their knowledge of genetics to escape before he’s successful in his crazy plan.
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
41. Shakespeare-themed Digital Escape Room
It’s just downright awesome how this free digital escape room turns learning about Shakespeare into an engaging activity for all. The activity itself is on a Google Form which makes it easily accessible from any device. Just have your learners follow the instructions and see if they can solve the puzzles!
Learn More: The Misadventure Of The Missing Manuscript
42. Dr. Seuss Digital Escape Room
Add some nostalgia to your literature and writing instruction by assigning your students this free virtual escape room game about Dr. Seuss. They’ll learn about the history behind this beloved children’s book author, while also demonstrating their knowledge of text structure, rhetoric, and more! You could use it as an anchor activity, homework, or classwork. The possibilities are endless!
Learn More: Escape Edventures
43. Operation Bletchley, 1945 Escape Room
Drop your high schoolers straight into 1945 England as top-secret codebreakers who cracked the Nazi Enigma codes. Set the scene by letting them know that they’ve just found out that a bomb was planted in their operations room; encourage them to follow the clues to defuse the bomb before time runs out! This free activity is perfect for any WW2 unit.
Learn More: Active History
44. Romeo and Juliet Escape Room
Romeo, Romeo, how do we get out of this escape room, Romeo? Your class must work together solving puzzles, riddles, and questions about the prologue of Romeo and Juliet to escape the Globe Theatre in this free classroom activity. We love this because it’s an ideal way to get students excited about reading Shakespeare!
Learn More: The Energetic Educator
45. Sugar and Nutrition Digital Escape Room
Escape rooms are great for every subject, even Health and Nutrition class! In this free digital escape room, let your kiddos navigate online puzzles and clues to crack the code all the while learning about the positive and negative impacts of sugar in their diet.
Learn More: Twins and Teaching
46. Mitosis Escape Room
Do you teach a unit on Mitosis? If so, you’ll know that it’s a particularly tricky concept for some learners. This escape room is the perfect review activity to complete before having your learners take their end-of-unit test. The way this activity makes the content relatable by incorporating posts from social media into the tasks is sure to resonate with your kids!
Learn More: The Learning Hypothesis
47. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln Digital Escape Room
The assassination of President Lincoln has gone down as one of the most shocking events in American history. Your kids won’t be able to get enough of this interesting twist on Abraham Lincoln’s assassination as they’re placed in the role of John Wilkes Booth right before the president’s death. Will they choose to try to alter history? Only time will tell!
Learn More: History Written
48. Zombie Apocalypse Escape Room
What teen doesn’t love a good zombie apocalypse scenario? In this free science-themed escape room game, your kids are trapped in a building that’s been invaded by zombies! They must follow the clues to find the vaccine by determining what needs to be added to their test tubes. Even though it’s just a story, they’ll feel the pressure of time running out, making it all the more fun!
Learn More: Jennifer Casa-Todd
49. Workplace Professionalism Digital Escape Room
The workplace professionalism escape room can work in almost any classroom as the targeted skills are applicable to any teen: punctuality, appropriate dress, email etiquette, and more. These skills are especially helpful if your high schoolers are going to be graduating soon and heading into the real world! If you’re tired of receiving emails from your students at 3 AM with no subject line, this might be a game changer!
Learn More: Twins and Teaching
50. The British Are Coming Digital Escape Room
In this “choose your own adventure” escape foom activity, your class will decide if they would like to be a Patriot or a Loyalist during the American Revolution! This assignment on perspective is perfect to use as a fun review activity ahead of an upcoming test. It requires minimal prep, and it’s free!
Learn More: American Revolution
