A Friend For Keyla: Breakout EDU Challenge

Activity Objectives

Students will work with their classmates to solve puzzles and unlock different levels of a digital breakout room
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During this activity, students will practice cooperative skills, such as assigning everyone a different task, encouraging others to play an active role, and celebrating collective victories
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After finishing the game, students will use their creativity to extend it, such as designing their own puzzle, depicting a favorite moment in comic book form, or creating a movie poster for the game

This activity supports the development of the following social-emotional skills: relationship skills, responsible decision-making, self-awareness, self-management, and social awareness.

Play

Introduce the game to your students. You might say: “We are going to play a game called ‘A Friend For Keyla,’ which is about Keyla and her new friend, Neila. Although they come from different worlds, they also share many interests in common—like reading, playing hopscotch, sending secret messages, and learning about science! Keyla and Neila created a game that is made up of different puzzles, and in order to solve them, we’ll have to analyze clues in order to figure out the combination that will unlock each level. In order to be successful, we’ll have to work together and listen to each other’s ideas.”

Divide up your class into groups of 4–5 students, which will allow all students to play an active role in solving the puzzles, and share the game link below with each group. Students should work with their group members to gather clues, come up with possible solutions, and figure out the right combination to unlock the puzzle. Each group should choose one student to be the “Lockstar,” who will display the game on their screen and be responsible for entering the combinations as directed by their team.
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Note: Here is the answer key for educators. Careful, don’t share this with students!

Game Link for Students

Reflect

‍After each group has successfully completed the game, guide students through a post-activity reflection by asking the following questions:

What was your favorite part of the game? What was the trickiest part?
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Which part of the game do you think might be trickiest for your partner class? Why?
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How did you work together with your group members to solve the puzzles? Is there a funny or exciting moment that you would like to share about?
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What did you enjoy or find helpful about working with others? Give someone in your group a special shoutout!
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Is there anything that you would do differently next time?
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What advice would you give other students who are playing this game?

Extend

To build on their experience, consider engaging students in these extension activities:

Option 1: Create their own puzzle
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Option 2: Describe one of the moments from the game in comic book form (e.g., finding a clue and working together to solve the puzzle, illustrating a part of the game’s story, etc.)
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Option 3: Design a movie poster for the game
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Invite students to share their experiences or extension activities with your Empatico partner class through a live virtual exchange, Flipgrid activity, or Padlet board. For example, students might share:

Reflections on their experience playing the game
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Puzzles that they created, and challenge each other to solve them
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Comic strips and movie posters that they designed about the game

This activity was created in partnership with Breakout EDU.

Empatico Exchange