Back to School TeamBuilders

Back to school week and we will do a lot to help construct a collaborative science classroom.  Here are 3 quick & fun activities I use to close a period or fill time in an extended class (our lunch period is always long the 1st few days) during Back to School week.

#1: A to Z TeamBuilder

This is my favorite teambuilding activity. You can do one topic at the end of a class period (5 or 6 minutes), or do all 4 if you have extended time. 

Have students pair up with a neighbor (make a group of 3 if your class is odd numbered). You could have them change partners after each topic to have them work with more people.

The goal is to come up with words that start with each of the 26 letters of the alphabet which fit in a topic you will give them. They likely will NOT get all 26 in 4 minutes. Give them a few examples from a sample topic:   “If we did CITIES… C for Chicago, L for Los Angeles, B for Boston”

RULES/TIPS FOR STUDENTS

• Write a word that starts with each of the 26 letters of the alphabet which fits the topic.
• Do NOT go in alphabetical order (this is too hard).
• You must pass the paper back and forth and each person must write.
• If you get stuck, you can pass the paper back to your partner (once or twice).
• NO TALKING (or have them whisper). If they are talking loudly other groups will “steal” their answers.

Give them 4 Minutes. Announce the 2 minute & 30 seconds time remaining marks.

When you call "Time!," announce:

“Circle the Letters you did not get. Subtract that number from 26 and write your score. Show of hands, how many groups got…” Start at about 18 and keep raising the number until you have the winner(s). Poll the class for answers they used for the tough letters that other groups didn’t get.

A to Z Topics

Musical Acts

Bands/Groups: First Letter in First Word of their name
Solo performers: First Letter of Last Name unless they go by one name only

Clothing & Shoes

Can use brands or generic names … S for Shirt, or P for Polo

Cars, Trucks, Motorcycles

Makes or models

Food & Places to Buy Food

Types of Food or brands (includes candy) … C for Cake, L for Little Debbie 
Restaurants, grocery stores, convenience store

Subject Specific

“Things we will do in Chemistry Class this year”

“Jobs that use Math”

#2: Guess the Fib

This will take 5-10 minutes. Students write 4 statements about themselves with one of them being false. Have them exchange their sheet a few times with different neighbors allowing them to guess which statement is their fib. (Don’t write on another person’s paper when guessing.) They might write: number of siblings, where or who they visited this summer, hobbies, sports, number of pets, their age, their favorite color/food/music group/restaurant/teams.You can start them off by showing or reading a Guess the Fib for yourself and let the class guess your fib.

#3: Line Up

This one is quick, easy, quiet, and gets the students up and moving. Students are not allowed to talk. They can use hand signals only.

Line Up Topics

1) Start with an easy one:  Height: Make one side of the room shortest and other tallest

2) A good one is Birthdate (Month & Day). Check their line up by having them announce their birth date down the line.

3) # of Siblings

4) # of Pets

Grab these TeamBuilding worksheets and explanations Free from my TpT store:

My Escape Classroom

Retail Escape Rooms: Channel Your Inner Scooby Doo

Across the U.S. from small towns to the top tourist destinations, people are paying to be locked in a room. Demonstrating their popularity, TripAdvisor lists over a dozen commercial Escape Rooms in Las Vegas with ratings of 4.5 or higher! These businesses have designed challenging mysteries of varying themes and levels of difficulty for groups of 4 to 8 people. Players are given an hour to a solve a series of puzzles by searching through clues (and distractions) to unlock physical locks and uncover hidden details to unravel the themed mystery they've been dropped in.  The urgency of beating the clock, solving the riddles, deconstructing the mystery, and collaborating as a team make for a ton of fun.



In 2015, I got my first taste of the escape in Las Vegas with 5 college friends during a mob boss themed room that was rated moderately difficult. Given an overall goal (get out!), very few instructions, and a one hour time limit, we frantically dove in....sorting papers, flipping furniture, shining flashlights in barrels, stacking strangely labelled soup cans, assembling puzzle pieces, moving objects with magnets, and eventually unlocking locks. We did use one "lifeline" (hint) escaping with the mob boss captured and under 2 minutes to spare. If you and your friends or family have not had this experience, check Yelp or TripAdvisor to find a well-reviewed Escape Room and include one in your next vacation itinerary.

Escape Room PD Offered

Aware of my escape room experience and my passion for innovative activities for my students, my principal guided me toward a brand new professional development opportunity that would expose me to using Escape Rooms (Breakouts) in my own classroom. Over the next 2 weeks of PD, we worked in small groups solving a variety of pre-made web only digital escapes as well as more elaborate physical escapes involving actual letter, word, number, direction, and key locks. Faced with the challenge of escaping (and trying to record the fastest time), six groups of strangers quickly became effective mystery solving machines and had a lot of fun tackling the puzzles each session.

Escaping is a Blast. Let's Add Some Content!

As a veteran educator, I was excited to add this fun new collaboration tool to my teacher toolbox. However, I was somewhat frustrated by two things:

• 1) I was completely sold on the Team-Building benefit of implementing Escapes, but each breakout we completed in PD featured little or no content. The stories were interesting and solving puzzles was fun, but how beneficial was the activity for my students?
• 2) Set up and resetting physical locks for multiple groups of students throughout the course was going to require a lot of prep work and time.

My solution for both issues was to (1) create my own digital lock escape rooms that would (2) require knowledge of content we had or would learn in class. Adding the fun of breaking out to important classroom concepts makes a great combination. Students loved the collaboration and challenge of escaping all while learning and reinforcing concepts from our standard course of study. My first escape room led to one of those elusive goose bump moments where everyone is engaged, actively learning, and everyone (teacher included!) is excited about returning the next school day.

Digital vs Physical Locks

Physical locks are fun. The hands-on nature of spinning letters and numbers or inserting a key is a rewarding experience. Since my PD class, I earned grant funds to purchase five sets of breakout kits with a variety of lock types and keys.  I do use them... BUT... it takes significant time to set each lock for a specific escape, then reset them for another. For 5 groups with 6 locks each, I spent 2 entire evenings to prep for a physical locks escape.  Plus, I've read that my locks will wear out over time, and a misstep in setup will lead to the lock being permanently locked and needing replacement. I still plan to use them, but this school year I will mix the two lock styles using fewer physical locks or sticking to all digital locks.

Navigating an All Digital Locks Escape Room

My favorite Classroom Escape now uses all digital locks that are blended with a few hands-on items needed to solve some of the puzzles. This saves enormous prep time yet has plenty of physical "props" that students must interact with as well.   My Escape Room websites typically feature all of the following elements:

• Escape Room Theme, Story, & Goal
• A form containing 6 digital locks
• Content Related questions (Multiple Choice/True/False, Fill in the Blank)
• Numerous images, most with weblinks
• Often hidden links within a particular section of an image
• A Variety of puzzle types (nearly all require content knowledge)
• Online Puzzles that require a physical item students will have at their station
• "Fake Clues" to increase the difficulty
• Separate Laptop running my Countdown Timer PowerPoint 

Check out at a few of my Escape Room Websites that use all digital locks: (While browsing, keep in mind that there are 10-15 pages of materials I've developed that are needed to run each Escape Room):

All About That Base

Stop. Collaborate & Listen

Game of Bones

Wholly Mole'

ESCAPE TODAY'S BLOG POST!

In the orange form below, I've created 3 Digital Locks that could be part of a complete Escape Room website.  Although there is no back story to help guide you, these locks will serve as an example of how students find clues, test unlock solutions, and complete their escape. All 3 solutions are found in Today's Blog Post and are relatively easy. You have 8 minutes! 

The unlock solutions are at the end of this post.

• Each Lock Type in the form below will help you hunt for clues. For example: Somewhere within this post are 8 digits (or a hint that leads to 8 digits) which will unlock the 8 Digit Lock. 
• Lock Solutions might be found within images. (In a regular escape room, most images on the Home Page are linked to puzzles or additional clues. )
• Test your possible solution by typing under the lock where the form says "Your Answer"
• There is a specific format for each lock solution as noted under the Lock Type. For example, a Word Lock must be ALL CAPS.  
• As you enter a possible solution, the form will reply STILL LOCKED! in red until it is correct.
• When all 3 solutions are entered correctly, you are able to Click the SUBMIT button to complete your Escape. 
• "Distractors" are used that might seem to be solutions, but are actually used to increase the level of difficulty.
• Your 8 Minute Countdown has begun!           8....7....6....5....4....3....2....1

Stay Tuned!

In the coming weeks I'll be adding more websites, thoughts, examples, images, and how-to's related to my Escape Classroom!

LOCK SOLUTIONS

Create Your Own PowerPoint Review Game

GROUP vs GROUP Competition

For unit and mid-term/final exam reviews, I like to use this multiple choice, timed PowerPoint game to simulate the standardized tests they will later take. The Timer on each slide keeps students on task and makes the competition more engaging.  The Timers display times (15, 20, 30 or 45 seconds) that  spiral down until they disappear revealing a Time's Up message. The correct answer is revealed by the teacher with a mouse click after scanning the room & scoring each group.

Run the Game

• Use a projector to present the PowerPoint to the class.

• Put Students in small groups of 3-5 students

• As you click to show each new question, students will quietly (or their neighbors might "steal" their answer) discuss the question and answer choices

• Once Timer reaches "Time's Up," say to students, "Ready, Up"  (Don't let them raise cards until you say to do so)

• Scan the room to score each group's answer (Tick marks are quick!) 

• Click mouse to Reveal the Correct Answer & discuss the question & answer as needed

• The next click begins a new question and next timer will automatically start.

New Question Automatically starts Timer. Circle slowly spirals away.

Time's Up appears as time expires. Students Raise Answer when you say "UP"

  

Score the groups' answer cards, then click to reveal correct answer.

Make Your Own Review Game

1. Grab my PowerPoint Template for FREE on TpT.  There are 4 template slides with different timers: 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds, and 45 seconds
2. For each question you create, choose the amount of time, then copy & paste that slide
3. Edit the Question #, Question Text, and Answer Choices on the pasted slide
4. Drag the Explosion Shape to the correct answer.
5. Repeat Steps 2-4 for the remaining questions
6. Save your PowerPoint Game!

I print my group's letter cards on card stock, 2 letters per page. I've included a PDF file with Letters A, B, C, & D in the TpT download.

I also have a great 40 Question Chemistry End-of-Year Review Game available on TpT:

Make Your Own Domino Review

What are Domino Reviews?

Domino reviews are a fun, hands-on activity that work for all ages and any subject. They can be used to begin a topic (making students do more research) or as a comprehensive chapter or unit review.
Teachers can easily circulate to monitor progress and offer hints as needed.

A Correctly matched domino set in Chemistry

Dominos are cut rectangles that have a clue on one side that is then matched to a 2nd domino's correct answer. There is both a START and STOP domino, and all dominos in between must be matched correctly to get the order right.   I like to use them in small groups which fosters communication and collaboration to solve the puzzle. As a final exam review, I also run timed stations that groups rotate through.

Who Should Cut 'em?

(A) Students Cut-n-Glue
Many teachers have students cut and glue the domino pieces. A pre-scrambled and photocopied page is passed out. Students will cut, match, and glue them from Start to Stop. Having used the cut-n-glue method for years, I found that there was a lot of wasted class time. I still think this method works well for topics that feature a lot of vocabulary terms.  For example, you could use 23 Spanish terms and their 23 English translations. Students can then continue to use the puzzle to study terms.

Flash Card Style: Crease the domino, glue left side (answer) under the "upfolded" clue of the previous domino

6, 1, 2 is the answer to the "What coefficient..." clue that is now lifted 

(B)  Teacher Cuts Reusable Group Sets
My first dozen or so domino reviews were handwritten and student cut... No longer! I tired of students complaining about my lovely penmanship, and I could no longer afford the loss of class time needed for cutting and gluing. (One school year we were advised to avoid scissors altogether following the weaponizing of a pair of dollar store snips!)

Answer Sheet to Record Domino Letters

I now use an Editable Word File, print 6 sets on card stock, and cut them myself. I do use 6 different colored card stock pieces in case they ever get accidentally mixed with another group's cards. Another option, if you don't have multiple colors, is to cut and number each set on the back. (Group 1 would work with cards that all had "1" on the back.)  I have reused some of these sets for 10+ years with very little loss and only slight wear.

See Letter "G" at top right. This would be recorded on answer sheet.

Since students are not gluing completed puzzle pieces to submit, they instead record each domino's Card Letter on their answer sheet numbered 1-24 once they are done.

Benefits of Teacher Cut Sets

• Almost no prep time once you create the reusable sets
• No lost time for cutting and gluing
• Grading student answer sheets is very quick

I Wanna Make My Own Custom Domino Review!

1. Grab my free Editable Word Template on TpT.  Detailed instructions are inside! 
2. Use Included Planning Sheet: Print and write 23 clues and answers
3. Open Editable Word Template: Type this infromation into the template
4. Print Domino Sets: I like 2 sheets per page (see note below) 
5. Cut Domino sets & store for each group
6. Print Blank Student Answer Sheet for each group (these are already 2 per page)
7. Print Teacher Answer key (the answers in Red already match your first custom set you are making in the Word file)

More Than Words!
 Many of my puzzles feature images, graphs, charts, numbers, and equations.

Rinse & Repeat

Use the template to make more than one custom set for the same class. When creating your second set and beyond, you should revise the 24 Letters in each domino corner once as you edit the Word file with new clues. Then revise your Teacher Answer key as well. This will prevent each puzzle from having the same sequence of letters.

Whoa, My Printed Dominos are HUGE!

The Word file has 6 large dominos per page which work great in elementary class or if you are using large, detailed images on your cards. I prefer to print 12 dominos on each sheet by easily adjusting the Page Setup during printing:
File > Print, Look for "1 Page per Sheet" and Change to "2 Pages Per Sheet."

I also have and will be adding more Ready-to-Use, Topic Specific Domino Reviews on TpT.