World War II Themed Escape Room!

For this fall's Middle School escape room, I took note of how popular books on WWII have become with middle schoolers, and decided to build an escape room with clues inspired by specific WWII books. I chose three fiction, and three nonfiction books.

Fiction: The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac, and Allies by Alan Gratz.

Nonfiction: Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II by Candace Fleming, Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin, and How the Ghost Army Hoodwinked Hitler: The Story of American Artistry and Deception in World War II by Rebecca Siegel.

The students had to figure out how to open word, number, directional, color, and key locks, using clues based on such things as rationing recipes, the Navajo code, and semaphore. Their final challenge was to distinguish cookies made without sugar or butter (rationing recipe) from cookies made with a standard recipe--they all found this pretty easy!

Many, many thanks go to Bill Johns for providing such excellent props, including two real WWII helmets!