Review and Giveaway: LockPaperScissors Escape Rooms

Review and Giveaway – LockPaperScissors Escape Rooms

If you’ve always wanted to run an escape room in your school library, now is your chance. I’ve teamed up with the fantastic team at LockPaperScissors to review their escape room kits and give you a chance to win one of their Big Box or Kids Big Box.

Running escape rooms had been on my to-do wish list for a while but it always seemed a little daunting. Then I found the escape room kits from LockPaperScissors. 

LockPaperScissors sells downloadable and printable escape room kits. They include everything you need, plus tips on how to expand or customise your escape room to make it epic.

Why escape rooms?

Escape rooms are a great way of drawing a crowd to your library. I have used them during Book Week as an ongoing activity, I’ve done them as after school group events, I’ve used them in my lessons and I’ve even used them as a “panic – we have to entertain the entire year level for a double lesson, what are we going to do?” activity.

I love that you can run the LockPaperScissors escape rooms as print and play activities or you can use the printables and add decorations, clues, locks and anything else you want to turn your space into a real escape room.

LockPaperScissors escape room kits

If you head to the LockPaperScissors website you’ll see that they offer a variety of escape rooms for a variety of ages and interests. From the Frost Magical Adventure for ages 8-12 (but I ran it successfully with some Year 12 17-year-old students) to the Envy Murder Mystery for your older students. You can purchase each escape room individually, purchase a Big Box which includes four escape rooms or purchase the VIP box that includes every escape room kit plus a bunch of cool extras.

I love that you can fit these escape rooms to a genre or storyline. I’ve used the Revel Revolt escape room as an adventure dystopian event and the Envy Murder Mystery kit fits perfectly with our Year 10 English crime fiction unit.

I purchased the VIP box and this gets you every escape room kit, plus a massive range of extra puzzles (many of which are school subject based) and accessed to any future kits created. It is a must for any school library (I think). I’ve used some of the puzzles for my library classes, shared with my teachers or even put them in my library research guides.

LockPaperScissors even has a guide on how to create your own escape room. I have used this guide with a group of students who worked to create their own escape room. It worked really well. I don’t think I’ll be creating my own kits any time soon, not while I have all the other kits, but it’s great if you want to start creating your own.

What you get

Once you purchase a kit (or win it it in the giveaway below) you unlock access to your download file. You get a zip file with everything you need. You get the game, which is in .ppt format. This includes all the clues or cards that form the escape room. You get instructions on how to play and print your game. You also get images, posters, We Escaped signs, invitations, flyers and everything you need to promote and celebrate your escape room. Some kits also include extras like photo booth props. You also get the images that form the backgrounds to these files and the font. This is so incredible because it means everything is totally customisable. You can customise the game and posters. You can use the fonts and images to create your own posters or social media or newsletter graphics to promote your escape room. That’s exactly what I did when we ran the Rebel Revolt escape room. You also get instructions on how to print – whether you are doing your own printing or getting it done for you.

Everything in your kit makes it so, so, so easy to print, prep and scale. LockPaperScissors allow you to print as many copies as you need. I’ve printed some of my kits on thick card so I can reuse them but I’ve also printed kits on paper so I could use it for an entire cohort of Year 7s and at very short notice.

Everything you get is also really well designed and styled. The graphics are high quality and print up beautifully.

But that’s not all. You also get access to the game and instructions on the LockPaperScissors website so you can play with a device to check your answers as you go. Makes it super easy to run.

Getting ready

You can seriously press print, grab your copies, hand them out to students and let them do all the cutting and playing. I’ve done it that way and it worked really well.

But you can also scale it up a little. When we ran our Dystopian Adventure escape room with the Rebel Revolt, we created a photo booth area, used costumes and decorated a bit. But, we did used the printed clues as they were.

Once we are in our new library space, I will have some small rooms and I cannot wait because I will be using the kits, extras provided, add some lockboxes and decorate heavily to create an actual escape room. I can’t wait and I know the escape room kits will make this super easy to achieve.

Running the escape room

I love that the LockPaperScissors escape room kits give you an age guide and time guide, clear instructions on how to run the escape room and even support all that with an online playing guide with answer checker. It makes running the escape rooms so easy, especially with large groups. The age guide is pretty accurate, though I have used the kits designed for younger students for much older students. The Frost escape room was popular with high school students, even some Year 12s. I’ve used the Envy kit (which is marketed as adult) with my Year 10s. I’ve also included adults in the escape rooms designed for students and they enjoyed them just as much as the students and they didn’t win! My Year 7s took out the win and my teacher group actually came last. The variety of clues and challenges levels the playing field, which is awesome.

The running time guide has been completely spot on every time I’ve used a kit.

Overall

I am a massive fan of the LockPaperScissors escape room kits. I love their variety and their versatility. They make running an escape room achievable. But, don’t just take my word for it. Try them yourselves.

Now, here’s the part you’ve been waiting for. Your chance to win a LockPaperScissors Big Box or Kids Big Box.

The Big Box includes four escape room kits, Envy, Rebel Revolt, Lost Mummy and Escape Room Z. These are perfect if you are in a high school library. The Kids Big Box also includes 4 escape room kits, Frost, Escape Quest, Rebel Revolt and Lost Mummy. Perfect for Junior Libraries or middle grade libraries or even high school libraries.

Which one will you try?

Giveaway

Enter the competition below for your chance to win your choice of a Big Box or a Kids Big Box. There are 10 boxes to win. The competition closes on the 31st of October 2022. The competition is open to school library staff and educators internationally. Winners will be contacted by the 7th of November 2022.  If you are a winner, I’d love to share how you use your kit in your school library or classroom either here on my website or on social media.

Good luck.

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