What I Learned From Having 5th Graders Do a Digital Breakout

I created (yes, created! From scratch) a digital breakout for my 5th graders to review some skills before their state assessment.  It was a great two days of learning in the library for me as well as for them.  Here are some things I learned...

1.  Sometimes the "smartest" kids aren't the most capable of thinking differently.  The students that we thought would be able to solve the puzzles or figure out the clues to get to the actual math problems were the ones that were at a loss as to what to do.  

2.  Some 5th graders don't like to do work.  Even though we told them that this was a math review and that they had to solve math problems to unlock the locks, some groups spent a lot of time trying to guess the answer to the locks instead of just working the math problems. 

3.  Even though we only had a handful of groups get all of the locks open, most of the students seemed to enjoy themselves and all were introduced to a new and engaging way to review for the upcoming test.  

I will definitely do another breakout with these kids this year.  Now that they have been exposed to one, I think many more will be successful the next time.