Ok, not going to lie-I saw all of these adorable escape rooms online. I may or may not have fallen down the rabbit hole and looked at them for 3 hours. I am pretty tech saavy but man, those things are A LOT of work! I needed an easier solution because I was dying to try an escape room in my Spanish Class.
I love engaging my students through games and other fun activities. After all, I teach high school- I need to bring the energy because let’s be honest- they aren’t always as excited about Spanish class as I am
I knew I wanted to try an escape room but I also knew I did not have hours to dedicate to creating one. So, I tried out a MUCH easier way using two platforms: Google Forms and Flippity.
Here’s how to make your own Escape Room for your Spanish Class:
Step One: Find a Worksheet/Resource you want to use (I did say EASIEST escape room-let’s use what you have!)
If you have an existing worksheet (score for keeping it easy!) that you want to jazz up, this is how to do it!
Starting fresh? No worries, you can make up the questions as you go. An existing worksheet or resource is not necessary but just helps cut down on your work.
Step Two: Create a Google Form
You can title your Form whatever you’d like. Your first question should ask for the student’s name (first and last if you prefer). If you have multiple periods of the same prep you can ask them to indicate which period they are in. This helps separate results when they are finished. This would be my second question.
Add a section; this helps separate students’ basic info from the first “Room”.
Title that first section “First Room” or whatever you’d like. In the description space, you will paste the link students will visit to open their locks and answer the first set of questions.
Add a question to your Form. Your first question in that section is a short answer question.
You will want to click on settings and make it a quiz. This allows you to add a correct answer. This correct answer will serve as your secret word or password to escape the room. As Google Forms is case sensitive, make sure to tell students if the secret word is all lower/upper case.
Step Three: Head over to Flippity.net
If you haven’t checked out Flippity.net yet you should! It has so many FREE templates you can use with your classes. As they are a little tricky, I suggest you watch a demo of the template you want to use first.
For the Escape Room, I use the Locks Template. This makes it feel like they are solving a mystery and actually escaping from something! After watching the demo, click “Template” and you will be forced to make a copy for yourself.
Rename your copy Escape Room 1. Create your questions and answers in the Google Spreadsheet. I suggest 8-10 questions because you will do this multiple times and you don’t want to overwhelm with 20 questions in each room.
Create questions and answer key (use that worksheet if you have it!)
When writing questions- you can opt to give hints (this is a great way to differentiate instruction for lower level students without calling attention to them!) You can even link to an article or website for them to look up the answer.
Once you have completed your questions, on the very bottom, click on the Options Tab. This is VERY important!
Here you can randomize the order of the questions (if you want), you can change the prompt text for students to Spanish (great for upper levels!).
Most importantly: you want to change the “Done Text” to “La palabra secreta es: “ and include your secret password. This way, once students have completed the Escape Room, they receive a password they must enter in Google Forms. This will get them to the next Escape Room.
Another great option Flippity offers is email results. I DO NOT use email results for Escape Rooms because you will get an individual email with each students’ results for each Escape Room (and honestly, I get enough emails already).
It’s a great option for other activities when students are completing ONE Flippity activity but I wouldn’t recommend it for an Escape Room.
Step Four: Once you have completed ONE complete activity on Flippity (8-10 questions), and you make sure that you have your secret word set up, you HAVE to publish your spreadsheet. Make sure to click File > Publish or students cannot access your link.
Once that is complete, copy the link you are given and paste the link into your Google Form. I usually paste it under my title. My title is something like “Primer Cuarto or First Room”
The only question in the section is “¿Cuál es la palabra secreta?” What is the secret word? And again, they will receive this word once they complete the “room” you just completed on Flippity.
Once you have one room complete, I suggest you add another section for another room. This will force students to go in order and pace themselves. If you want them to have access to all rooms at the same time, instead of adding separate sections in the Google Form you can just continue adding questions to your Google Form.
To best get a feel for what this is like as a student: Try out my Practice Escape Room Here!
There are so many amazing Escape rooms you can create for your Spanish class but if you do not have the time OR just want to keep things simple, this is a really manageable way to do just that!
If you are looking for more ways to plan less and get more, check out this blog post!
I can’t wait to see how your Escape Rooms turn out. Don’t forget to tag me over on Instagram and let me know!
