Locked Lessons

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Title screen of The Telescope Mystery, a Greek and Latin roots escape room

Grades 4–5 · Greek & Latin roots

The Telescope Mystery

A Greek and Latin roots escape room for grades 4–5

Dr Vega's star map has gone missing from the Hilltop Observatory, and the comet arrives tonight. Seven locks stand between you and the map. Every lock is a puzzle about word roots.

Students solve seven self-checking locks built on word roots and earn a root from each. At the last lock they put two of those roots together to name the answer to the case.

Play the free taster (2 of 7 locks)Members: full room

The taster runs in the browser, with nothing to install. Members share a private class link that opens all seven locks.

What's inside

  • 7 self-checking locks: a crossword, scrambled roots, a secret message, matching, word building, odd one out and a final lock
  • The roots: tele, scope, photo, graph, micro, phon, auto, bio, geo, astro, logy, naut
  • For grades 4–5: English language arts and vocabulary, or Latin and Greek classes
  • No logins and nothing to install; progress is saved in the browser
  • Takes about one lesson

For teachers

Each of the seven locks practises the room's roots in a different way:

  1. Crossword — ten words built from the room's roots, with clues that give their meanings.
  2. Scrambled roots — unscramble seven roots, with the meaning of each as a hint.
  3. Secret message — decode a shift-three cipher and answer the riddle it asks: which root is it?
  4. Match the roots — give each of eight roots its meaning.
  5. Build the word — put two roots together to make four words from their meanings.
  6. Odd one out — in each row, find the word that only looks as if it has the root.
  7. The last lock — choose two of the roots earned in locks 1–6 to name the answer to the case.

Most classes take 30 to 45 minutes. Students can work alone, in pairs or in small teams on any device with a browser, or you can project the room and solve it together as a class. Every answer checks itself, so you are free to circulate, and progress is saved in the browser, so a room can be split across two lessons. The rooms suit English language arts and vocabulary lessons as well as Latin and Greek classes.

More roots escape rooms for grades 4–5

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