Description

Practicing and reviewing operations with fractions has never been so fun for your 5th graders! These three online breakouts are easy to implement and provide an opportunity for your fifth grade math class to work on adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions without worksheets. All three online breakouts are very simple for teachers to implement, self-checking, and ready to use both for in-class or distance learning. There are no clues to hide. The entire escape room is automated by a Google Form™ (Google Accounts are NOT required by teachers or students to use this escape room).

These escape rooms are great to use throughout the year for review, even summer math review! They can be used by homeschoolers, math tutors, and in virtual academies in addition to in the classroom. Because they are so easy to implement, they make great activities for substitutes!

In “Catch the Recipe Thief” your students use their knowledge of addition and subtraction of fractions and mixed numbers in order to break out of the thief’s cabin. This is a challenging escape room which also involves ciphers (with instructions given). It is best completed in small groups, and takes 45-90 minutes to complete. In order to complete the four puzzles in this digital escape room, students must be able to:

• Add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators.
• Form equivalent fractions in order to perform addition and subtraction of fractions with unlike denominators.
• Subtract mixed numbers using regrouping strategies.
• Solve word problems with fractions.
• Identify the numerator and denominator in a fraction.
• Simplify improper fractions and reduce fractions.
• Solve simple ciphers (directions and hints included).

In “Operation Stop the Cruise Ship,” hackers have taken over a ship’s navigation system. The ship’s captain is sending your students clues where their ability to multiply fractions will help them stop the ship and save the day. In order to complete the puzzles in this escape room, students must be able to:

• Match visual models with their corresponding equations (see thumbnail #3)
• Multiply a fraction by a fraction, whole number, or mixed-number.
• Multiply two mixed numbers.
• Understand multiplication of fractions as scaling by completing inequalities.
• Solve word problems involving the multiplication of fractions.
• Find the area of a rectangle with mixed-number side lengths.

“Escape the Pizza Parlor” is a quick escape. Most students are able to complete it in 15 minutes or less; however depending on how you have students show their work on the included recording page, it may take longer. This escape room requires students to divide whole numbers by unit fractions and unit fractions by whole numbers in order to find the key to leave the pizza parlor. Skills required to complete this online breakout:

• Solve real world problems involving the division of unit fractions by whole numbers
• Solve word problems involving dividing whole numbers by unit fractions
• Carefully reading clues to enter answers properly.

FAQ

• Do students need to have Gmail™ accounts? NO! Anyone with internet access and a tablet, computer, or even phone can complete the breakout.
• How long will this take? That is the hardest question as the answer varies depending on each classroom, student, or group. Most students will be able to complete the quick escape activity (dividing unit fractions and whole numbers) in under 15 minutes. You can allow 25 minutes to be safe. The other two escape rooms in this bundle generally take 45-75 minutes to complete. The forms will not save student data, so if you are worried about your students not finishing on time, simply have them write their answers on scratch paper. They can then come back and quickly re-enter their answers and pick up where they left off. Some students with a firm grasp on the concepts covered in this escape room will be able to complete the puzzles very quickly (under 10 minutes), others will take longer.
• Will students have to search the web to figure out the puzzles? NO! All of the information needed will be provided in the Google Form™. The math in this activity is all standards-based.

Please watch the preview videos for each of these products to learn more about the puzzles!