We received two kits (thank you Breakout EDU for giving us a great deal!) and put them to use right away. We found the Sandbox a great place to explore and search for games, but for our first Breakout we decided to use a self made game. Students have been applying their bar modeling, addition and subtraction skills through real world problems, so we decided to give them a real world task and crack the case of the Breakout EDU box. Second graders had a blast! They were actively engaged, thinking, collaborating and applying their knowledge.
Some lessons learned (for the teacher)
- When you open your kit, keep all your instructions! Take a picture and upload to your Google Drive you can access from school, home, or wherever you might be resetting locks.
- Keep track of the lock codes, I like to use Google Keep so I can quickly access from any device.
- Start a Google Folder and track all your game ideas and creations there.
- Garage sales... clearance racks... dollar stores… be on the lookout for fun and cheap containers/bags/boxes that you can put a lock on
- Share, share, share- once you have a Breakout established take it on the road. Offer to do it with a coworkers class, use it with your own kids, birthday parties, or in my case I designed one for my husbands 40th! We had a Back to the Future 80’s themed blast. Yes, adults too! They were “totally” into breaking open the boxes.