Teaching Resource
Holiday Code Cracker: Middle Years – Whole Class Christmas Game
A whole class holiday themed game including a collection of 6 activities which students need to solve, to reveal numbers to combine for a lock combination.
Begin the holiday festivities with with a bang in your classroom with the Holiday Code Cracker! Students need to use knowledge and communication skills they have acquired this year to work together on six tasks to reveal six numbers to crack a lock combination. The groups are then presented a final riddle to help them arrange their code in the right order to help them succeed in their mission. These activities include students to think about ideas that involve numeracy, geography, comprehension and vocabulary.
Put the Buzz! into your class by getting a six digit lock or two, three digit locks and a lockable box to hide a reward or message for students to compete for.
Run this activity as a timed rotation system for six groups on six activities or create it as a race to the finish. As previously seen with Teach Starters, Marvin Measurement’s Treasure Box, Christmas Code Cracker and the Let’s Cooperate Code Cracker resources, students love working together on the variety of small group tasks, where students need to communicate and cooperate together to help each other succeed.
This teaching resource has a PDF that includes teacher instructions, activity answers, activity templates, task cards and resources needed for this activity.
Activities include:
- Holiday Hooray Poem
- Holiday Tree Wheel
- Rudolph’s Present Predicament
- Trifle Tower
- Cryptic Chatterbox
- Holiday Treasure Hunt
- Party Light Chaos
- Final Riddle
National Curriculum Curriculum alignment
- Key Stage 2 (KS2) - Lower
Key Stage 2 (KS2) - Lower covers students in Year 3 and Year 4.
- English
By the beginning of year 3, pupils should be able to read books written at an age-appropriate interest level. They should be able to read them accurately and at a speed that is sufficient for them to focus on understanding what they read rather than ...
- Mathematics
The principal focus of mathematics teaching in lower key stage 2 is to ensure that pupils become increasingly fluent with whole numbers and the four operations, including number facts and the concept of place value. This should ensure that pupils dev...
- Geography
Pupils should extend their knowledge and understanding beyond the local area to include the United Kingdom and Europe, North and South America. This will include the location and characteristics of a range of the world’s most significant human and ...
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Find more resources for these topics
LiteracyNumeracyGeographyGamesChristmasHolidaysEscape Room Activities
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