Back to School Escape Room - Escape the School Bus Teambuilder Icebreaker

This back to school escape room activity is the perfect teambuilder icebreaker for the start of the school year. Use this engaging activity to foster classroom community and improve students’ team building and problem-solving skills during the first week of school! 

Students will begin by reading a backstory that sets up the escape room. On their way to school one morning, the eccentric bus driver, Mr. Whimsywig, takes a detour to another dimension in an effort to bring the best of the students onboard. They will then circulate the room to six different stations, using a response booklet to record their answers to a series of back to school-themed puzzles, riddles, and tasks to make their way back to school for the first day!  

This back to school escape room activity is a great way to get students up and moving together and establish connections that will last all year! The resource includes everything you need to facilitate the activity in your classroom. Although it works especially well during the first week of school, this activity can be completed at any point in the school year.

Included in this Back to School Teambuilder Icebreaker:

➡️ Teacher Instructions: Use the detailed teacher instructions to help you set up the room and facilitate the escape room.  

➡️ Escape Room Narrative Backstory: Introduce the activity with this highly-engaging one-page narrative backstory that sets up the escape room and hooks students into this back to school escape room activity.

➡️ Student Instructions & Station Signs: Set up each of the six stations with signs to indicate the task number and type and student instructions written in the form of poems. 

 ➡️ Escape Room Station Activities: The resource comes with all the materials students need to complete the activities at each station (hiding homophone challenge, pictogram activity, spelling sort, back to school maze, nonfiction reading with multiple choice, encryption activity, organizational envelopes, and more!)

➡️ Student Answer Booklet: Have groups record their answers for each puzzle with the included student answer booklet. After completing all sections of the booklet, students will reveal the passphrase needed to escape the school bus.

➡️ Teacher Answer Key: Use the included detailed teacher answer keys that show how each station is completed successfully to check students’ work! This will help you determine a winner of this back to school teambuilder icebreaker and can also be used as a way to review each of the stations with students after the escape room is complete. 

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