If you know me, you won’t be surprised that I LOVE escape rooms and anything similar. So much so that I decided this had to happen at camp! So… my first year ever assigned to create evening programs, I decided I was going to do an all camp escape activity!
Luckily, teachers thought escape rooms were super cool, too, and they had already brought the idea to their classrooms. They even switched up the game mechanics so that instead of students escaping the classroom, they had to get into a mysterious box. Brilliant! So there I was, a baby Program Director planning her first evening program ever, developing a super complicated game.
Long story short, I did it! I planned an awesome breakout activity called “La Caja Misteriosa” or The Mystery Box (my camp was a Spanish immersion camp). And it was a hit! So, of course, the return on investment (arguably too many hours spent on planning it) was well worth the pay off (excited campers!).
Since it was a long process to design my first breakout game, I created a guide to help other camp pros and educators do it more easily so that even more young people can experience these awesome games! The overall gist of it is in this blog, we have a PDF of a presentation in our Free Stuff section, and we have a Google Doc you can copy and edit for your camp!
THE STORYLINE
What is happening? Why?
You can have some fun with this section and use your imagination! The story can be elaborate and complicated, or it can be as simple as “Oh wow, there’s a mysterious box, I wonder what’s inside!” Participants will love it either way!
Questions to consider:
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Who brings the box or how is the box found?
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What will make them interested in getting into the box?
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Do they know what’s inside yet?
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Educators: Are you teaching a particular unit soon? Can you do an end-of-unit breakout activity where students are applying their new knowledge from the unit to solve clues and get into the box?
A few ideas:
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A villain has stolen the forks & locked them inside the box so that no one can eat breakfast. (Or a villain has stolen all of our textbooks!!!)
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Mystery Box - We don't know what's inside but wow are we curious!
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The camp director or principal found this box in her office and isn't sure what it is. She needs your help!
What materials do you have?
Take a look at your current inventory of supplies. You might have some things that you wouldn’t even think to use, like a lockable filing cabinet or box in your office.
Here are the basics that I recommend (total of approx $57):
Some other cool stuff to get:
- Directional lock
- Key storage lock box
- 4-digit word combination lock
- 5-digit word combination lock
- Vaultz has a bunch of lockable products!
- Invisible ink pens
- Blacklight
What if I don’t have any materials and I don’t have a budget to buy them?
That’s ok! I believe that you can create a breakout game without any locks. Give me a call or shoot me an email for ideas on how to pull this off.
Don’t forget to write down your lock combinations!
THE GAME PROGRESSION & THE CLUES
Where will the clues be? Where will the clues lead them?
Questions to consider:
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Are they all getting into one box? Or does each group have their own box?
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How do they know where to start? How do they get their first clue?
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Where will the clues lead them? (I recommend that they don’t all follow the same path at the same path. You can have them go to the same 10 locations, but mix up the order of their clues.)
Clue Types
- Partial clues - they get more information as they progress through the game
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Clues that require information from multiple teams to figure out
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Clues that connect to other parts of the week or day (or camp/class in general)
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Clues that have been under their noses all along! (Have a clue that connects to a piece of paper or a poster that has been in their cabin or classroom since they arrived!
THE CONCLUSION
What’s in the box?!
A few ideas:
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S'mores or some other treat
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A letter/invitation to an awesome party or special event!
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Some sort of activity to do... like an end-of-the-session mural project or an art project
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Stickers, camp swag, or other fun items that kids love
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A prop or object that ties up the storyline (like the forks that the evil camp villain stole so that they couldn't eat breakfast?!)
The satisfaction of getting the box open will be more exciting than the contents of the box itself, but the moment of discovering what they were working towards all along is a pretty great moment, too!
Post-Game Reflection
I recommend thinking about some debrief questions to use with the campers after they complete the game. Think about what the purpose of the game is, and go from there. Here are a few examples to get you started:
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How did it go?
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What were the most challenging parts?
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What did you love?!
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How did you work together to solve the clues?
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What did you do to include all members of your team?
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How did you make decisions?
Have questions?
Email me! I would be happy to chat as you create a breakout game!
Looking for templates?
Check out our free stuff section!
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