Printable Escape Room for Kids: The Locked Briefcase

One sheet, four puzzles, and a password at the end that tells kids whether they got it right. Print it, hand over a pencil, and the next twenty minutes take care of themselves. It works at the kitchen table, on a rainy afternoon, at a party, or in a classroom.

How it plays

1. The secret plans are locked in a briefcase with a four-number code.
2. Four puzzles give one number each: a maze, picture math, a secret message and a riddle.
3. Each number of the code picks a letter from a strip at the bottom. The right code spells a real word: the password.
4. They say the password to you, and the briefcase is open.

Why this one checks itself

Most free escape room sheets end with a code that only the grown-up can check, so a child who made one mistake early finds out at the very end. Here the password does the checking. If the letters do not make a word, they know one of the four numbers is wrong, and they can go back and find it themselves, which is most of the fun of an escape room anyway.

Setting it up

1. Print page 1 on a color printer, or page 2 on any printer. One sheet per child, or one per pair.
2. Hand over a pencil. That is all it needs.
3. Keep page 3 for yourself: every answer is on it, with the solved maze.
4. Optional: put a small prize in a box with a four-number padlock set to the code on page 3, so the code opens something real.

In the classroom

It makes a good early-finisher sheet and a good station. Print one per pair, and have them bring you the password rather than the code: anybody who can say it has solved every puzzle on the page.

What is in the download

• Page 1: the escape room, in color.
• Page 2: the same sheet in ink-saver black and white.
• Page 3: for the grown-up: every answer, the solved maze, hints, and the padlock idea.