BreakoutEDU is a super fun, engaging way to teach or review content with your students. If you've never heard of it, let me explain... I'm sure you know what an escape room is, right? Someone locks you in a room for an hour and you solve a series of puzzles to get out of the room. Well, a BreakoutEDU box is exactly the same idea, except instead of breaking out of a room, you have to break INTO a box!
The company BreakoutEDU sells official boxes. It's $150 for one box and a one year subscription to the site. The Breakout site includes over 800 premade lessons and activites that you can use with your students. I love the idea behind BreakoutEDU, but unfortunately I cannot afford to buy 4-6 boxes that I would need per class, nor the $50 a year renewal fees to maintain access to the site. Teachers are poor! So what to do, what to do? Make my own, of course!
Making my own boxes was pretty simple (and WAY more cost effective!). Off to Amazon I went, searching for the following items:
I also found gold locks with keys and combo locks at the Dollar Tree... you can find quite a variety of different types of locks with a little searching! I was able to make 4 boxes for about $100, which is pretty great. I'd recommend that you have a max of 6-8 kids per box, so depending on the size of your classes and how you integrate them (as a center or as whole group), you'll need to figure out how many boxes you'll need to work for yourself. Lock Tips
I made some mistakes that ended in locks being cut off with bolt cutters... don't make the same dumb mistakes I did!
BreakoutEDU Lessons
Now, where to find the lessons? I highly recommend that you start by using a pre-made box/lesson. To build your own lesson takes a lot of time and planning. Using a pre-made box will also help you understand the mechanics of how the boxes work before you attempt to build your own!
There are numerous Facebook groups for Breakout Boxes by searching. There are ones for Librarians, English Teachers, Elementary teachers, even Breakout Espanol! Here's a sample of a FEW of the groups that are available... there are many more than what you see here!
If you would decide you want to plan your own, I recommend using this planning guide to help you backwards map your locks and clues... download it here:
Other Resources
There are lots of fun resources out there for BreakoutEDU Clues... check out this list from BreakoutEDU. Don't forget to verify that all the links are unblocked for students on your network... student devices may be filtered and block the content.
SO - what BreakoutEDU boxes will you do with YOUR students? What successes (and failures!) have you had? Drop a comment below and let me know! I'll update this blog soon with pictures from a BreakoutEDU Box I did earlier this year with my 8th grade students in February. It was an amazing success!
0 Comments
|
About the AuthorHi! Welcome to my blog! My name is Christine Hurley. This is my 17th year of teaching - I've taught Kindergarten, 4th grade, elementary media, and now I am in my 6th year of teaching middle school media! Archives
September 2020
Categories
All
|