Here are the emails for each day:
Day 1:
It's finally time – the 5-Day Music Escape Room Challenge!
I'm so excited to start this challenge! I created this challenge to help out anyone who has wanted to try an escape room but isn't sure how, or for those of you who have done escape rooms but would like new ideas!
Each day, I'll send an email in the morning. Then, at 7:00 p.m. EST, I'll do a Facebook Live video (click here to follow Mrs. Miracle's Music Room on Facebook to make sure you don't miss it.)
There’s going to be great discussions in the private FB group as well – so if you haven’t yet, <<join here. >>
Before we dive right into today’s email – I'd like to give a quick summary of what an escape room is. If you've ever been to an actual escape room, you may have had to solve a series of puzzles in order to unlock the lock and escape the room. A music escape room is similar. Students would work in small groups to solve a series of puzzles or complete a series of tasks. At each task, they'd receive a letter, then unscramble those letters to form a word and then escape the room.
Each day of this challenge, we'll cover a different digital task that you could use in an escape room. After you do each digital task, you'll collect a letter, and after five days of tasks, you'll unscramble the letters to form a musical word, which will “unlock” the room. No technology in your classroom? No worries! I'll also share another way to do each task without technology. By the end of the challenge, you should have lots of ideas for creating your own escape room.
Today, you'll take this Google form quiz to receive your letter. Click “view score” to see your letter!
This isn't a quiz that you would use in your own classroom, since I'm asking more teacher-focused questions, so how could you create something for your own students to use? Go to your Google drive, then click “new,” then “more,” then “forms” to get started. You could create questions about anything you are teaching your students, from instrument families to note names to rhythmic concepts. After you've created all of your questions–I suggest staying to about 5 or so questions–you can check out this article about how to make it into a Google quiz, in which you give students feedback about right or wrong answers. For the last question, you could type “Your letter for this task is __,” and that's how they get their letter, just like you got yours! You'll also want to go to the three dots in the right-hand corner, choose “add collaborators,” then change “private” to “anyone with the link” so all of your students can get to the quiz.
If you don't have any technology in your room, you could create a paper quiz with the same questions, then have students work in small groups to complete the quiz, check their answers with you, then get the letter from you.
Tune into today's training on Facebook Live today at 7:00 p.m. EST (or catch the replay if you can't be around at that time) to hear thoughts about the benefits of doing an escape room, and how to have students get to this quiz and other technology platforms easily during your escape room.
Your challenge for today: After reading this email and completing the quiz, decide whether you would use a Google form quiz or a paper quiz, and what the quiz would be about. Head on over to the Facebook group and post on the Day 1 challenge post with your thoughts.
>>Click Here to Visit Today’s Post on Facebook.<<
That’s it, Day 1 is in the books and you’re thinking about escape rooms. Make sure to tune into our live training today to get your creative juices flowing more!
See you at 7 p.m. eastern!
Day 2 email:
I hope you were able to check out the Day 2 challenge! If not, no worries…the Facebook Live video can be viewed here, the Facebook group discussion is posted here, and you can go back through your inbox to read the ideas and challenge from Day 1. Now onto Day 2!
In today's challenge, I'm going to have you take another quiz, but this time with a platform called Quizizz. This is a wonderful website in which you can have students take quizzes you create and/or quizzes others have created. The site is similar to Kahoot, for those of you who are familiar with that quiz platform, but students can take the quizzes whenever they want (and don't have to wait for others to answer!)
Today, you'll go to join.quizizz.com and enter the code 517169 to take a Quizizz quiz and receive your letter. You'll get your letter in the last question.
This quiz is obviously much harder than one you would give your students (I wanted to give you a challenge!) so how could you use a student-friendly quiz? The good news is, I've created many different quizzes! For my beginning band quizzes, click here, and for my general music quizzes, click here. To use them in an escape room, you could duplicate the quiz, change it however you want, then add a question at the end so that students get their letter! I assigned it as a homework quiz, and made sure to click “shuffle questions” off, so that they receive the letter at the end of the quiz.
If you don't have any technology in your room, you could create a worksheet about whatever topic you want, then have students fill it out, then get the letter from you. However, as I talked about in yesterday's Facebook Live video, you could do this quiz with only one computer, iPad, or Chromebook in the room!
Tune into today's training on Facebook Live today at 7:00 p.m. EST to hear thoughts about how to have students unlock their word, ways to make it more challenging, and how to have them escape the room!
Your challenge for today: After reading this email and completing the Quizizz, decide whether you would use a Quizizz or worksheet, and about which topic. Feel free to look at any of my quizzes, or simply search the platform for any others! If you're looking for free worksheets to use, check out this composing worksheet or this note naming worksheet. Head on over to the Facebook group and post on the Day 2 challenge post with your thoughts.
>>Click Here to Visit Today’s Post on Facebook.<<
Make sure to tune into my live training today to find out more about setting up your escape room. See you at 7 p.m.!
Day 3 email:
I hope you were able to check out the challenges from Day 1 and 2! If not, no worries…the Facebook Live videos can be viewed here, the Facebook group discussion is posted here, and you can go back through your inbox to read the ideas and challenges from the first two days.
Now onto Day 3!
For today's challenge, I'm going to have you do a digital puzzle, then go to another site to find your letter.
First, you'll go to bit.ly/saxophonepuzzle, and complete the puzzle. Hit the arrows in the left hand corner to start.
Then, you'll go to bit.ly/escapeletter to get your letter!
To make this quiz, I downloaded a free photo at www.pexels.com by searching for “saxophone.” Try searching for another instrument to see what you find! Then, I went to www.jigsawplanet.com, created a free account, and uploaded a picture to make into a puzzle. You could also create a picture in Powerpoint that has musical concepts on it for your puzzle, such as instruments of the orchestra, musical symbols, or notes on the treble clef staff! I find that with students, 15 pieces is a good size puzzle that doesn't take too long but isn't super easy, either! You can then create a bit.ly link to make it easier for students to get to the puzzle and the letter, or you could embed the links into Schoology or Google Classroom, if you use those platforms at your school.
If you don't have any technology in your room, you could print out a picture like one you find on Pexels, then cut it up into pieces and have students complete the puzzle to get the letter, which you can hand them in an envelope when they're done with their task.
Tune into today's training on Facebook Live today at 7:00 p.m. EST to hear about more fun tasks for your escape room!
Your challenge for today: After reading this email and completing the puzzle, decide how you would incorporate a puzzle into your escape room. Feel free to search Pexels for images, or create your own image! Head on over to the Facebook group and post on the Day 3 challenge post with your thoughts.
>>Click Here to Visit Today’s Post on Facebook.<<
Make sure to tune into my live training today to discover more fun tasks. See you at 7 p.m.!
Day 4 email:
We're already more than halfway through our music escape room challenge! I hope you're as excited as I am about all of the creative inspiration and possibilities!
Now onto Day 4!
For today's challenge to receive your fourth letter, I'm going to have you solve this puzzle.
To use this with your students, simply print! If your students don't know all of the rhythms in this puzzle, you could make your own puzzle and answers, print, and go!
Tasks like these can be a great way to make the escape room more challenging, because some students will answer incorrectly and will have to come back to the task to try again.
Tune into today's training on Facebook Live today at 7:00 p.m. EST to hear about how to choose concepts and tasks for your escape room.
Your challenge for today: After reading this email and completing the puzzle, decide whether you would you this exact task or another one to have students find a letter. Head on over to the Facebook group and post on the Day 4 challenge post with your thoughts.
>>Click Here to Visit Today’s Post on Facebook.<<
Make sure to tune into my live training today to help you make more decisions about your escape room. See you at 7 p.m.!
Day 5 email:
Today is the last day of the challenge! I hope you already have some great ideas for an escape room this upcoming school year, and I bet you've inspired some other music teachers with your creative ideas!
Now onto Day 5!
For today's challenge, I'm going to have you do a listening challenge on a Google site with an embedded Google form. Click here to watch and answer the questions.
Hopefully you got the letter…and with the four letters from the other tasks, can figure out the musical word!
To create your own Google site, you can visit sites.google.com, click “create,” and set up your google site however you'd like. You can click the layout of your choice, add a video from YouTube, then add a from if you'd like. If you are having students watch a video, you could ask some questions like I did, in which students have to carefully watch. Other questions I could have asked include “How many trumpet players do you see?” “How many piano players do you see?” etc.
If you don't have the technology in your room, no worries! As long as you have a CD player for students to listen to a track, you could have a paper and pencil quiz for students to answer questions. This could be a great way to have students improve their listening and responding skills!
Your challenge for today:
Decide whether you'll use a Google Site or an audio recording with a paper quiz, and which piece you'll cover with either. Head on over to the Facebook group and post on the Day 5 challenge post with which you plan on using.
>>Click Here to Visit Today’s Post on Facebook.<<
Make sure to tune into our last live training today to get more inspiration! There will be an giveaway tonight…so make sure to tune in until the end! And feel free to post on challenges from previous days if you're just getting to them!
It's been so much fun to share and collaborate with you! See you at 7 p.m. Eastern!