Tag Archives: Escape room

FunJungle Escape Room

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I’ve been running escape rooms twice a year for a while, and always try to create or borrow one that has some connection to middle school literature. This time, I decided to go with Stuart Gibbs’ FunJungle series of humorous mysteries involving a zoo/wildlife park in Texas. Gibbs, author of the Spy School series, is one of the most popular authors in my library, so I figured his series was a good choice.

When I’m designing escape rooms, I generally go with a single-path design, in that students can’t open boxes out of order because the clues in one box lead to another. I look at the locks I have and figure out which ones will work best, and design puzzles around them. Since FunJungle has an extensive map available online, I chose to start with a directional lock—actually a Breakout.edu multilock that can be set to work with letters, colors, or symbols.

(Note of caution: With a multilock, if you are using symbols/colors, it’s not enough to write down the combination you chose. You also need to note how to hold the lock while opening, and if the combination reads left to right or right to left. If not, you, like me, might have the embarrassing experience of a lock not working because you forgot the proper lock orientation!)

Below is my escape room in the order of unlocking, and I’m happy to share any details or documents if you’d like to run it yourself. I usually include two clues in each box, with one clue leading to the next box, and the second clue being for a box further down the line.

  1. Map Clue Box—Directional lock

I printed and laminated a large map of FunJungle with starting text saying where Teddy went to search for Cappuccino, an escaped capuchin monkey. The order of Teddy’s search gives the directions for the directional lock.

  • Tasks: Print and laminate map
    • Create and print starting clue
    • Program multilock and detailed instructions for unlocking
    • Print and laminate URL for inclusion

In this box: Cutout cardstock for second box, laminated URL for third box: https://www.google.com/search?q=animal+sounds

  • Cutout Clue Box—Four digit number lock.

I found a page from a FunJungle book that included letters I could use to spell out numbers, in the proper order for this four digit lock. I also copied several other FunJungle pages as red herrings, but kept the actual page slightly bigger—it was only one that fit the cutout.

To create the cutout, I first mapped where my desired letters were on tracing paper. Then I laid the tracing paper on my cardstock and used an X-Acto knife to cut out the squares, so that laying the cardstock over the page revealed the letters. This took some fine-tuning to make sure the correct letters were visible.

  • Tasks: Find a page containing the appropriate words/lettersTo spell out the requisite numbers
    • Create cutout cardstock
    • Print out multiple pages of FunJungle books
      • One for the clue and others as red herrings
    • Program number lock
      • (Or just keep whatever it’s programmed to—the kids never remember!)

Components found in previous boxes: 1: Cutout cardstock

In this box: Flash drive, red film

  • Animal sound clue Box—Five-letter word lock

I went to Google and searched “animal sounds,” then used my phone’s voice recorder to record five of them whose names corresponded to the word I chose for this word lock (HIPPO). I used the free Audacity program to combine the sounds into one track in the proper order, and saved the track on a flash drive as “Super secret clue.”

https://www.google.com/search?q=animal+sounds

I used Flint AI to create a template of zoo-type animal labels, then added photos of ten animals, five of which are correct and five of which are red herrings. I printed and laminated them.

  • Tasks: Create a template for zoo animal information sheets
    • Find photos of ten animals and add them to the template
    • Print and laminate
    • Create a recording of animal sounds in order
      • The first letters of their species name create the word to open the word lock
    • Store recording on flash drive
    • Have a laptop available to play the file
    • Program word lock

Components found in previous boxes: 2: Laminated URL, Flash drive

In this box: Red-film-clue-obscured equation, blacklight

  • Red Film Clue Box—Four digit number lock.

With Flint AI’s help, I created a complicated but simple-to-solve mathematical equation that led to four digit answer. I turned this into a red-film clue by writing it in pencil, then used a red ball-point pen to scribble over it until it was illegible. Holding red film over the clue makes the underlying pencil legible again.

((50 + 10) x (200 ÷ 2)) + ((4 + 4) x (100 ÷ 2)) + ((20 – 4) x (10 ÷2)) + ((15 – 6) – (4 – 2))

  • Tasks: Create a suitably complicated equation
    • Turn it into a red-film clue
    • Source some red film, perhaps from theater or art department
    • Program number lock, if necessary

Components found in previous boxes: 2: Red film; disguised equation

In this box: Puzzle, laminated cryptowheel clue XBCECPOANIIW

  • Puzzle Clue Box—Key lock.

I created a collage of FunJungle book covers, and wrote a limerick on the back to identify where the key was hidden, using an invisible ink pen. Then I laminated and cut up the collage (Note: 5-6 pieces at most!!).

FunJungle has all kinds of these,

Found in donkeys and monkeys who seize

The one thing I need

To trap them indeed;

Find it where you get help for skinned knees.

(I hid my key in the first aid kit)

  • Tasks: Source an invisible ink pen and blacklight, plus batteries
    • Create a collage of FunJungle book covers
    • Create a limerick or other clue to identify where the key is hidden
    • Write it on the back of the collage BEFORE laminating
    • Laminate collage
    • Cut collage into 5-6 pieces
    • Hide key

Components found in previous boxes: 2: Puzzle, Blacklight

In this box: Cryptowheel

  • Cryptowheel Clue Box—Five letter word lock

I happen to have a wooden cryptowheel, so decided to make use of it. The way it works is that you turn the dials until you have legible words in one line (“Use word lucky”), then look at a different line and write down those letters as your clue. When students align the clue letters, they then turn the wheel until they spot the actual words.

I had my clue, XBCECPOANIIW, written on a document lying around, and in a box. The document I used was a school field-trip scavenger hunt form, created with the help of Flint AI, and filled out by my quietly hilarious colleague. I used the clue in one of the “name” fields, as if some smart-aleck thought it was funny.

  • Tasks: Source and program a cryptowheel
    • Program word lock
    • Create a field-trip scavenger hunt form
    • Fill out, with the code letters written on it somewhere
    • Create some other scavenger hunt forms as decoys
    • Cut out and laminate the clue
    • Print and laminate a photo of the “escaped” animal

Components found in boxes: 1: Cryptowheel clue (laminated)

In this box: Cookies & laminated capuchin monkey photo

Décor and red herrings:

You can do almost anything with décor and red herrings, going as detailed or minimal as you want. I’d do fewer red herrings for younger students, though—they do get off track! Here’s what I used in my room:

  • Scavenger Hunt, printed and filled out humorously and including Cryptowheel clue
  • FunJungle books
  • Animal stuffies borrowed from colleagues
  • Safari hat & binoculars borrowed from the theater department
  • “Missing animal” posters with template created by Flint AI, filled out by me

Conclusion

Escape rooms do take time to create and set up, but the kids love them and it’s a fun way to connect them with books and exercise their brains. Let me know if you would like to see any of the escape rooms I have created or borrowed!

Escape Rooms

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When I first heard about escape rooms several years ago, I thought they sounded like an amazing activity the kids would love, but I doubted my ability to put one together. Then a teacher approached me with the hope of running a Harry Potter escape room, so I started doing some research. After finding a librarian who had created such a room, Beth Bouwman of the Somerset County Library System in NJ, I got her permission to duplicate her escape room. She sent me all of the details, the teacher purchased props and locks, and everything went well. During the pandemic, I adapted that escape room into an online version. Instead of the usual Google Forms style, I used a Google Slide with added, clickable images, so it wasn’t a linear experience.

Later, I borrowed several escape room plans from Erica Testani, a Virginia librarian: Babysitters’ Club, Wings of Fire, Percy Jackson, and Taylor Swift. At that point, I had facilitated enough escape rooms to attempt creating one of my own. I started with another Percy Jackson one, and just finished a Keeper of the Lost Cities one. While the rooms take a lot of prep, set up and break down time, the kids love them and I enjoy the creativity of putting them together.

Want to create a room of your own? Here are some hopefully useful tips.

Plot

Start with your theme, perhaps a popular book series to connect with the library, or some other aspect of popular culture. Then you need a starting point. What are the kids trying to find, or do? Did Percy lose Annabeth’s baseball cap? Do you need to complete a Taylor Swift Lover House with icons from all of her eras? Did Kristy’s little sister go missing and you have to find her? It doesn’t have to be a weighty goal! The premise should include the first clue. I generally do a linear escape room, in that the boxes must be opened in a certain order, so the starting clue is key.

Boxes

My escape rooms are more like solving a series of boxes with different types of lock. I generally go with five or six boxes. If you have a kit from Breakout.edu, you probably have some boxes already, but I’ve also repurposed sturdy gift boxes and plastic containers, using a drill to make holes for the locks.

Locks

You’ll want a variety of locks. If you have a Breakout.edu kit, you’ll likely have a multilock, which is really useful because you can change out the wheels and use it as a word lock, color lock, or directonal lock. I also have additional word locks, number locks (three and four digit), and key locks. VERY IMPORTANT: Because you can change the combinations of your locks, be SURE to label each lock with its current combination before putting it away after your escape room event is over!

Puzzles

Here’s where you can go crazy! Codes, ciphers, runes, jigsaws, maps, clues in blacklight (you need the pen and the blacklight), auditory clues that must be replicated, riddle-poems, baking soda snowballs to be melted with vinegar, Jeffersonian wheel ciphers, red-film clues, edible clues, liquid clues, color clues, pretty much anything you can think of. Tactile clues are great; our kids spend so much time on screens that things they can touch and manipulate are welcome.

Décor

This will obviously vary with your theme, but doesn’t need to be elaborate. Posters, books, props, some red herrings. Consult with students if you’re less familiar with the material, and source items with the help of other teachers. Our theater’s costume closet has supplied a lot of décor for me, as has one of the Latin teachers (a Roman helmet for Percy Jackson). A science teacher helped me by three-D printing a lightning-bolt cookie cutter. Other teachers have responded to my queries for things like a kid’s xylophone and a “thinking cap.” All of the teachers were happy to be asked and enjoyed the opportunity to participate.

Scheduling

One of the drawbacks of doing an escape room is that it doesn’t work well for more than a few kids at a time. My ideal group size is five, maybe six, so everyone gets a chance to participate. When we had a scheduling glitch and I ended up with too many kids, I divided them into two groups and they alternated solving the clues. Because I have small groups, I need to run several sessions of each escape room, and multiple setting up/breaking down times does add more time overall. Plus, to ensure that the kids solve the room in the space of the lunch block, I usually have to give them a lot of hints.

Sharing

I am happy to share any of my escape room setups, and Erica gave me permission to share hers as well (with credit). If you’d like to run any of these, or you have additional questions about setting up this type of escape room, feel free to contact me. If you have one you’d like to share, please also contact me—I’m always looking for new ideas!