Get inspired by how this teacher transformed learning with a DIY escape kit

As always, Dani's school in Busan, South Korea was hosting their annual Halloween party. But this time, Dani wanted to do something especially thrilling... an escape room!

Little did she know, this decision would make her a hero.

Bringing this escape room to life would prove to be a Herculean effort worthy of song. It took Dani months to transform 'The Lost Mummy' into her perfect Halloween escape room game, and then on the day, another 7 and 1/2 hours to run almost 200 students through 'Dracula's Escape Castle'!

Wanna know how she pulled this off? So did the High Wizards - we interviewed her to find out!

Clever wizards save time using this magical tool!

Mm. This is a hard question. I think the first thing I did was research types of puzzles.

I wanted to find a variety of puzzles that could be solved by my students. Then I had to keep logistics in mind as well. Since I was preparing rooms for the whole school to go through, I wanted to have reusable pieces that didn't need a lot of time to reset.

I saved myself from headaches by investing time into research before building my game.

How did you get the difficulty level just right?

Where did you get ideas for your puzzles from?

Oh. Maybe two months, for several hours each day, 3-4 days a week?

I spent a lot of time just thinking and running through ideas in my head too.

As for motivation, my deadline was approaching, and I really wanted something fun for my students, so I think that was the greatest motivation.

Then, when I was hitting a wall, I reached out to other people, coworkers, and the Escape Wizards!

Hahahaha! Honestly, TRULY, my favorite part was THINKING about the puzzles and imagining how my students would react.

My coworkers can attest to my devious chuckles at random moments throughout the day.^^

Least favorite?

Eww. Editing.

Getting so close to finished, then realizing something wasn't going to work, then reprinting. I didn't like losing that time or the resources.

They thought it was hard, but asked me to NOT make it easier next year.

However, the number of clues in the room confused some of my younger students.

Next time I think I will split the game across three rooms, that way, the students won't be confused about which clues to reference for each lock.

1) Set up.

When you see the pictures, you'll notice I had placed low-tack tape on the board so that students could realize they were allowed to moved the cards around. I began leaving the center one to give them a head-start.

I made sure the EFL students understood N/S/E/W, and demonstrated HOW to open the first lock.

MANY Korean students had never seen a directional lock before. They loved it. Even if they decided to give up, they still wanted to try to open it.

2) Ghostlegs.

All my students knew how to play this game.

I had complicated it too much by removing the answer of order, and only allowing them to learn the pets' names. At that point, it was too challenging, but if this step is in a new location, the students will be able to leave old clues behind and use new ones.

The successes!

There were only 6 teams that completely finished the WHOLE game without any cheating! They were so proud of themselves!

1) Real rooms and clue rooms. I had 6 rooms, each with a full game ready to go. Next year, I will use 3 rooms per game, running through 2 sets of the same game, and move the students to the next location for each lock.

I think my castle room cards had too many clues for my younger students. Many of them jumped to "time" and tried to use the clocks in their first challenge. Separating the clues by location and lock would help them, and I would still be able to run the students through all the rooms, one team after another, reducing the amount of traffic in other areas of the school.

(My plan to lock the kids up for crowd control actually worked!)

2) Pencil cases. My pencil cases were soft and flexible. MANY of my young teams were able to open the case without opening the lock. Pretty smart kids, huh?

3) Cable ties & scissors. Some young students pulled each other too much and chaffed their friend's wrist. After noticing this, I simply put the cable tie on one wrist to signify they were 'caught.' HOWEVER, I neglected to ask if they were right or left handed. I had a student successfully finish the game, but tried to use the scissors with her left hand (her friends didn't help her at the time) and the scissors pinched her arm near the handles.

They thought the handcuffs were fun, but I will do that differently next year, for safety's sake.

4) Intro Video...… I forgot all about it. (Shh, don't tell my coworkers, who worked hard to make it with me.)

Since I had 6 games running, and only one phone, and that was soon taken by my 'photographer,' I simply had to describe what happened to my students, and told them what they needed to do. That MAY have had an impact on their success rates, but as I was seeing what kind of hints they needed, I worked harder to be clearer with my instructions.

Next year, I will definitely have them watch the intro video, especially while I 'reset' a room.

Oh yes, but I walked them through the process, giving them hints.

Many of them haven't learned how to think critically or how to solve these kinds of puzzles, so many of the younger students needed my help.

(And that's fair enough, escape rooms are confusing! But they don't have to be, check out our top tips and tricks to beat every escape room)

If running a game like this for your whole day, require another helper OR plan shut down times.

Yes, you will be crazy all day, but one extra helper (or a planned shut-down) would definitely allow you to take a quick break and also take more photos.

A helper could also make sure students can watch the intro video ahead of time.

Most teams could not finish completely or gave up, but six teams finished all the way to the end!! They were super proud of themselves. I had a lot of fun giving hints and hearing my students voice their 'Ah-ha' moments.

But I think we started a tradition.

I don't think this will be a memory as much as it will be a beginning.

Can I be a wizard too? What kind of magical title fits me?

Dani didn't start out as a Chuckling Puzzlemage.

First, she got the hang of hosting an escape room by running her class through 'The Lost Mummy'

Dip your toes into the exciting world of devious escape room masterminds with The Lost Mummy escape room kit.

Just download, print, and party. Done!