Winter Escape Room Place Value & Decimals Digital 5th Grade Math Activity

Can your fifth graders use their math skills with place value and operations with decimals to help the snowman escape the snow globe? In this winter math activity, rounding and adding, subtracting, and multiplying decimals to the hundredths place will help your students rescue the snowman. This quick digital escape room includes three challenging locks or puzzles which will have students racing to find a combination, look for a key, and figure out what order to push the buttons in. Students will solve three word problems requiring operations with decimal numbers to the hundredth and rounding decimals. Next, they complete a challenging logic puzzle requiring knowledge of place value and the value of digits. Finally, they solve 12 problems involving multiplying, adding, and subtracting decimal numbers and solve a cipher to free the snow man!

This engaging activity is great for your holiday party before winter break and can be done in-class or online for virtual learners. This is one of our Quick Escapes and is designed to be completed in 20-45 minutes (please note that times vary greatly by students). *If you are looking for a more challenging, full length escape room with more puzzles, check out our 5th grade Revenge of the Gingerbread Man or The Case of the Rogue Reindeer. The Snow Globe escape is designed to be able to be completed by students either individually or in pairs or small groups.

Breakouts are a great way to encourage engagement and increase participation, especially during the busy holiday season. Teacher love that this escape room requires very little prep (just click a link!), and it is completely self-checking. Students will not be able to progress through the escape room unless correct. The online breakout runs on a Google Form™, but you DO NOT need to be a Google Classroom™ user and students do not need Google™ accounts. Anybody with a device and an internet connection can complete this activity.

Here are the math skills that your students will need in order to complete the three puzzles:

• Add and subtract decimal numbers to the hundredths 5.NBT.B.7
• Multiply decimals to the hundredths 5.NBT.B.7
• Rounding decimal numbers 5.NBT.A.4
• Recognizing the value of a digit/place value understanding 5.NBT.A.1

What is included in the PDF?

• Easy to follow instructions
• Details for implementing this product for remote/distance learning (including the option to save a copy of the Google Form™ to your own drive
• Detailed answer key
• Teacher Tips
• Optional recording page for students to show their equations and visual models
• Optional success signs to snap a photo with to celebrate helping the snowman escape the snow globe

FAQ

• Do students need to have Gmail™ accounts? NO! Anyone with internet access and a tablet, computer, or even phone can complete the breakout. The escape room is automated by a Google Form™, but does not require the teacher or students to have Google™ accounts.
• How long will this take? That is the hardest question as the answer varies depending on each classroom, student, or group. Some students with a firm grasp on the concepts covered in this escape room will be able to complete the challenge very quickly (20 minutes), others will take longer. The majority of students will take between 35-45 minutes. Requiring students to use the recording form will increase the amount of time required to complete the puzzles. The form 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.
• 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.

This activity is great to use before Christmas break (note that it is not holiday-themed), or any time during the winter!