Description

Early Explorers Escape Room – VA SOL USI.3

Are you looking for a fun way to review the early European explorers? Look no further! This Early Explorers Escape Room has everything you need! Whether teaching remotely or in-person, this classroom escape room is easy to set up, and students will have lots of fun reviewing what they have learned!

In this Early Explorers Escape Room, students are in the process of time traveling back in time to study early exploration of the Americas when their time machine malfunctions! The only way to repair the time machine and return to the present is for students to successfully complete seven challenges.

To take a closer look at the escape room activities included, check out the images at the top of the page!

What will students learn with this classroom escape room?

Topics covered:

• Spanish exploration (Christopher Columbus, Juan Ponce de Leon, Francisco Coronado, Hernando Cortes)
• French exploration (Jacques Cartier, Samuel de Champlian, Robert La Salle)
• English exploration (John Cabot)

Students will review the countries the explorers sailed for, where they explored, the obstacles they faced, and the motivations for European exploration.

What escape room activities are included?

Students will complete seven challenges. When completing the activities, students will use critical thinking and inference skills. Challenges include activities such as:

• solving puzzles to reveal information about the early explorers
• decoding messages to learn quotes and information about the early explorers
• reading passages to learn more about specific explorations in the Americas
• sorting information about the explorers, motivations, and obstacles
• matching explorers to a description of their accomplishments

Is a digital version included?

This resource includes two versions of the escape room. The first version is a PDF escape room that can be completed in a classroom.

The second version is a digital escape room that can be completed in Google Forms. The digital escape room is self-checking so that students can review the answers to their work even when learning remotely.

What standards are covered?

This Early Explorers Escape Room is specifically aligned with the 2023 Virginia U.S. History SOL USI.3, although it closely matches most U.S. History standards related to teaching about early European exploration in the Americas.

What are other teachers saying about this escape room?

• “My students loved this! They were super engaged in the activity!” (anonymous)
• “This was such a fun way to end our unit of study. The kids loved the idea of the escape room that had them apply what they learned. Love the cross curricular aspect of this resource.” (Liyana S.)
• “Wonderful! The students were excited to get to class each day to work on it.” (Amy S.)
• “Yes! My 4th graders loved doing any “escape room” and it was perfect for adding flair to history lessons! Thank you for making history engaging!” (Vaness U.)

Don’t miss out!

Students will love completing the activities in this Early Explorers Escape Room! Teacher instructions are provided, making it easy to set up and implement whether in-person or virtually.

 

Want to save money?

This Early Explorers Escape Room is included in my U.S. History Escape Rooms Bundle for a discounted price!

 

More Early Explorers resources:

• Early Explorers Unit
• Early Explorers Task Cards
• Early Explorers Escape Room
• Early Explorers Study Guide
• U.S. History Curriculum

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Other Information:

©Meghan Vestal, Vestal’s 21st Century Classroom. All rights reserved. This product is to be used by the original downloader only. Copying for teachers, classroom, department, school, or school system is prohibited. This product may not be distributed or displayed digitally for public view. Teachers may NOT upload the product to school/district servers, or to any website, or share digital or print copies. Failure to comply is a copyright infringement and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). All sales are final.

For even more information about how I teach early explorers and create classroom escape rooms, check out my “7 Early Explorers Activities” and “Create the Perfect Classroom Escape Room” blog posts!