Bring the story of the First Thanksgiving to life with this engaging escape room activity! Students will explore the voyage of the Mayflower, the journey of the Pilgrims, and the first Thanksgiving celebration through four interactive escape challenges. Perfect for Social Studies or ELA, this no-prep, group-based activity is ideal for Thanksgiving lessons, team-building, or cross-curricular projects that combine reading comprehension and history skills.

The activity has been split into four different tasks; your students will need to complete each of the tasks to reveal a word. Together the four words make a phrase for them to escape the room.

Included in this resource:

• Student guidelines for completing the tasks meaning no teacher prep
• A student answer key to complete as they work through the tasks
• An informational text or reading comprehension passage
• A true or false fact sheet & maze
• A crossword puzzle
• A timeline activity & answer key
• A wordsearch puzzle
• Teacher answer sheets for each task

⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻

In Task 1 students will read an informational text about the first Thanksgiving and then find their way through a maze by answering true or false comprehension questions. If they answer the questions correctly they will reveal their first word.

In Task 2 students will use the same informational text to complete a crossword puzzle. Within the puzzle there are several hidden letters which will need to be unscrambled on the completion of the puzzle to reveal the second word.

In Task 3 students will have to cut out 27 timeline task cards that cover key events of the 1600s before putting them in order from the earliest date to the most recent. When they have finished their task they can glue them onto the answer key which will reveal their third word. 

In Task 4 students will have to find the missing words in a wordsearch puzzle before finding a hidden word from the letters that are left over in the puzzle. This hidden word is their fourth and final word.

Students can then complete their student answer key with the four words they revealed before checking with the teacher to see if they have escaped successfully.

⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻⎻

This resource is great for:

• Team-building activities
• Group work
• Research projects
• Reading comprehension
• Emergency sub plans
• Independent work
• Introducing a new topic

⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚⏚