Christmas/Holiday Escape Room - Reading Comprehension Passage and Questions

Are you looking for an easy-to-use activity that will give your students practice with fiction and non-fiction reading comprehension? This Holiday Escape Room has plenty of content about Christmas Around the World, Winter Holidays and Hanukkah. Your students will love reading stories from around the world while trying to escape from Gryla and the Yule Lads. The puzzles and word games will grab their attention and keep them hooked! You'll love the text dependent reading comprehension questions and vocabulary practice, and it's so simple to use!

For a video preview, click here. Video Preview of Winter Tales from Around the World.

The escape room begins on the last day of school before Winter Break. That night, as you read in bed, you hear a noise downstairs. And then you are sucked into your book and whisked away to the land of Gryla and the Yule Lads! As you travel around the world, reading fiction and non-fiction texts about holiday traditions from 6 different countries, the Yule Lads and Gryla keep popping up! Only by making good decisions can you finally make it home. Otherwise, you might freeze to death in the forest of the Snow Queen or find yourself being boiled in Gryla's cauldron!

This is the perfect activity for Christmas, a winter celebration, a Fun Friday, a sub or any winter afternoon!

The included texts are:

1. Gryla and the Yule Lads - Iceland

2. The Snow Queen - Denmark

3. Flores de Noche Buena - the Tale of the Poinsettia - Mexico

4. The Hanukkah Candle - Israel

5. The History of Hanukkah - a short non-fiction text

6. Christmas Down Under - non-fiction about the traditions of Australia

7. The Tale of the Fairy Jiao - China

Each text has questions and/or activities to reinforce comprehension and vocabulary. Sometimes, students must make a decision, and so there are a few different paths that students might take through the story. If they make a good decision, they get a helpful gift from the Yule Lads. If they make a bad decision, they might find a rotten potato in their shoe, land in Gryla's cauldron or even freeze to death!

Other parts of the story include a Word Search, a puzzle, and a Cryptogram which students must solve to move on. All of the information they need is included in the Escape Room, and often, answering the comprehension questions correctly gives them the solution to move on.

This download includes 2 Students Sheets that you may want to print out. It's not necessary, but having the physical page can make it easier for students to solve the puzzles.

Each text in this Escape Room can also be purchased as a stand-alone text, with additional comprehension and vocabulary activities, including more text-dependent questions!

You can grab four of the texts, with additional bonus activities in the money-saving bundle!

Or just purchase the texts you need here:

1. La Flor de Noche Buena - The Tale of the Poinsettia

2. Gryla and the Yule Lads - a tale from Iceland

3. The Hanukkah Candle - a paired text with fiction AND non-fiction about Hanukkah

4. The Snow Queen - an excerpt from the story by Hans Christian Andersen

5. Christmas Down Under - non-fiction about the Christmas traditions of Australia

6. The Tale of the Fairy Jiao - a story from China about the origin of dumplings

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Looking for other activities to keep intermediate students busy and learning during this time of year?

The Winter Solstice - Non-fiction Reading Comprehension Passage with Prefix Task Cards and 5 days of comprehension and vocabulary - PDF, Google Slides or EASEL

Escape from Santa's Workshop - a Decimal Escape Room - Google Form

Kwanzaa - Celebrating the Seven Principles - a leveled text with 5 days of reading comprehension and vocabulary practice

And many more winter and holiday themed Reading, Math and Vocabulary activities!

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I appreciate your feedback and reviews. I read every one, and they help me create with my students, and yours, in mind!

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Happy holidays, and Happy Teaching!

Susan