4Cs – Teaching In Stride

When a whole grade level approaches you for a breakout, how can you not connect it to a fun holiday theme prior to winter break. I smell a room transformation!

The 3rd grade teachers that I work with were in search of a collaborative breakout activity that would allow their students not only to have fun, but to reinforce the 4Cs at a much needed time. Breakouts, if you haven’t tried one yet, are also a great observation tool for building instructional groups and partners, but to also identify the different types of learners in your class.

The Breakout that we decided on was the gingerbread man theme of, “Can’t Catch Me,” which can be found on the Breakout EDU portal. I wish I could take ownership for this activity, but I can’t. The educator who shared this really put a lot of thought into the process of the clues. We did have to modify it a tad for third grade, but that was mostly because this was also their first breakout and a new learning experience.

While some achieved and caught the gingerbread man, there were others who didn’t. However, everyone won in the end because of the opportunity for reflection. It was so positive to see that an unsuccessful round didn’t discourage 3rd graders from the lesson, in fact, they can’t wait to try more!

Lollipops courtesy of Lindsay Zilly’s (@iCoachLindsay) life-size Candy Land.

Of course, we couldn’t have a gingerbread themed Breakout EDU without a gingerbread house! The baker was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the chefs in training, ready to share the shenanigans that this littler gingerbread man got into around the school!

I remember first hearing about Breakout EDU last year and wondering what the heck it was. I kept hearing the new buzz word around and it wasn’t until attending a local Students Involved with Technology conference that I got to experience this activity first hand with students. I was completely in awe and taken back by how fun and engaging this critical thinking experience was.

As my co-teacher and I began to investigate more, we figured this would be a perfect way to review Digital Citizenship, and we found a perfect culminating activity on the Breakout EDU site. The tricky part, not having a classroom budget, was to creatively collect the supplies needed so we could build our own. Keeping in mind, it had to be durable enough for nearly 500 students to be hands on with the pieces weekly.

Boxes – small toolboxes from the Dollar Tree
Pencil Pouch – zippered pouch that could easily be locked as well
Key locks – from the dollar tree
3 Digit Number Locks – from Aldi
Direction and Word Locks – from Home Depot
4 Digit directional lock – from Amazon
Black lights – from Amazon. I found that the different colored pen lights worked much better and were more durable compared to the individual black light.

One new addition that we added to our boxes were a suggestion found from the Breakout Facebook group. I saw a teacher who color coded her breakout box activities for the groups…this was genius! After contacting the teacher, we began ordering the colored plastic bins and the colored folders for clues. I highly recommended the lock parking lot after going through the experience of having locks accidentally reset.

Overall, I love Breakout EDU! Next to coding, it is a top favorite in our class!

*The activity shown in the picture is the “Caught in the Code” game from the Breakout EDU website.

Tag: 4Cs

Can’t Catch Me!

Breakout EDU