Library Breakout Box: Michigan Chillers Edition

I was PUMPED to try my very first Breakout this week! I've never done an official Breakout EDU before, but I kept thinking that I could probably handle making one myself. I bought a box and locks on Amazon, sat down and wrote some puzzles, and here you have: Our first VO Breakout! Just in time for Halloween!

As a final capstone on our Destiny catalog and library call numbers review, fourth graders had to solve some Destiny-related puzzles to unlock a box! Since I wanted this to be literacy-themed (as always!), we read the first few chapters of Mayhem on Mackinac Island by Johnathan Rand to introduce our problem. This also helped reintroduce a lot of kids to the Michigan/American Chillers series, which were pretty much all checked out by the end of the week!

In the story, siblings Tim and Sandy are trapped in the Isle of Mayhem until they can find the Stone Key to let them out and back to their summer on Mackinac Island. While the kids don't find the key in the story until the very end, I stopped after a few chapters and pulled out a box locked with 3 different combination locks and the Stone Key (as well as some Halloween candy) locked inside! The kids had to solve puzzles to come up with the combinations.

Since we've been studying Destiny and call numbers, all three puzzles revolved around those skills. One required them to look through the shelves for numbers hidden at certain call numbers; another had them analyze a Destiny record and fill in the blanks; and one more that had them look through our catalog for answers.

If you're interested in my puzzles, hop over to my TpT store for the breakout! I'm excited to see what they come up with :)