As you know, because of Corona virus break we have to teach online these days. Actually, it has been 6 weeks so far! We have covered couple of topics and finished a whole unit, including the Reading Comprehension part.
Normally, we play educational escape the classroom games when we reach the reading part of our unit. Every unit (every 4 or 5 weeks) we play these games to cover the unit topics through a reading comprehension game.
This time, even we weren’t back at school, I took the risk and played our Can you Break the Codes? game during one of our online lessons with my 3rd graders!
As we were all in front of a computer, no body needed a tablet, mobile or iPad. I sent kids the game link (which takes them to Google Forms, same place when you read the QR Code), so the game page was already on another tab.
I have sent the game pack pdf file before the lesson, so couple of kids printed the game out which eased the process for them a lot.
Some of the kids opened the game pack themselves while the rest preferred to look at the screen that I was sharing.
Anyways, we finished the game. Of course it wasn’t as fun as it was in the classroom but nobody complained and everyone was engaged from the beginning till the end.
By the way if you have played one of our other games, you will recognize that this game hasn’t any mysterious puzzles or secret games like the other games, because we were gonna play it online… I just took our course book’s comprehension questions and added them to the game. If I had added more fun or secret stuff, we may not have finished the game in 1 lesson time… It had to be short but educational 🙂
If this is your first time in my blog, you may want to have a look at my first Escape the Classroom Game Pack Freebie post where I also explain “What is an educational breakout game?”
So, I prepared this game for Richmond Publishing course book Thumbs Up 3 Unit 5 Reading Comprehension part “The Impossible Escape – A True Survival Story – Episode 1”
It is for our 3rd graders (CEFR A1, GESE 3, CYL Movers) but as I always say, you can play these games with any level above just for fun or as a time filler!
Game Objectives: Infer if a specific information in the text is true or false. Look for specific information in a text.
Skills Development: Developing reading comprehension strategies.
Vocabulary: mountain, survivor, climbers, summit, equipment, base camp, ice, ropes, rescue, pain, meters, slide
Grammar Focus: Simple Past Tense (regular verbs), (to be) was – were
Warm up: Read the title out loud together. Have students look at the picture. Ask questions about it. Ask them what they think the story is about.
Pre-Reading: Write on the board : Mountain, Mountain Climbing, Base Camp. Explain the meanings and illustrate them. | After this, you can write “Mountain” in the middle of the board and draw a circle around it to start a “Brain Map”, have students brainstorm related word and write them around it.
Read the story with your students and ask some comprehension questions while reading.
If you do these activities before playing the game, you will see it’s gonna be easier for your students to read and understand the story.
How to Play:
- You need 40-50 minutes.
- Download the Article and Can you Break the Code Escape the Classroom Game Pack pdf files. They are both ready to print. So just print them out (My advice: Don’t print them double sided as it will be harder to read and follow the sections).
- Group your students. (2-5 ideally)
- Give them mobile phones or tablets or i Pads which have QR Code Reader apps downloaded. (It is easier if the devices have QR Code reader apps in them but if they don’t that’s not a problem as there is also a web link they can reach the game).
- Put all the papers (Article + Game Pack) in a big envelope (this is optional of course you can just hand the files to your students or even find a more creative way to give the papers 🙂
- Important Detail: In the pack, there are 2 separate pages with speaking cards and passwords. These pages are for the teacher. Do not give them to your students. During the game at some sections kids will have to answer some questions so that they can get passwords directly from you.
Instructions:
Before playing the game I suggest you to scan the code and reach the game and play it yourself (or just have a look) to foresee what your students may ask you during the game 🙂
This is what I say to my students: “Whatever you need is in the envelope! Open it and find the “QR Code” page. When you scan it, you will reach the game. Answer the questions to find your CODES. You will need those codes to open the sections and finish the game. Good luck! 🙂 ”
Click here to download the game pack.
Click here to download the reading text.
Click here to download the answer key.
Thank you for playing ^_^
*** Every Month*** I will be sharing a new escape the classroom game. So! Stay Tuned!