Thinkabara

🔺 Escape room: The Temple of Shapes

Google Classroom

A geometry escape room for grades 4–6: polygon sides, perimeter and area of a rectangle and triangle angles open an ancient temple gate.

The story

You have discovered an ancient temple whose doors are made of shapes. Each door opens only for someone who calculates correctly. Solve every puzzle to find the code of the Golden Gate.

Carved on the wall: “Only those who know their shapes will walk out into the light.”

Run it at home or in class

What to prepare

  • Printed station sheets
  • Rulers (optional; all measurements are given)
  • A 4-digit lock or a sealed envelope
  • Paper shapes for decoration

Tips for the facilitator

  • Draw each station’s shape large on its sheet, with the measurements written on it.
  • Give every team scrap paper; some pupils will want to sketch.
  • Make station 2 active: measure out a “fence” 24 steps long with a rope.

Difficulty level

The story clues stay the same on every level; harder levels add more locks in between. You can ask for a hint at every stage.

0 of 6 stages solved · Easy · 15–25 minutes

Stage 1: The gate of sides

1/6

Three symbols are carved on the gate: a triangle, a square and a hexagon. To open it, you need to know how many sides all the shapes have together.

🔺 🟥 ⬡

Run it in real life too

Print a facilitator kit for the easy level: a sheet with the opening story, the setup and every answer, plus a big card for each of the 6 stages.

🔺 The Temple of Shapes: facilitator kit

Grades 4–6 · 15–25 minutes · Level: Easy · 6 stages

Opening story: You have discovered an ancient temple whose doors are made of shapes. Each door opens only for someone who calculates correctly. Solve every puzzle to find the code of the Golden Gate. Carved on the wall: “Only those who know their shapes will walk out into the light.”

Setup

  1. Printed station sheets
  2. Rulers (optional; all measurements are given)
  3. A 4-digit lock or a sealed envelope
  4. Paper shapes for decoration
  5. Print the 6 stage cards and put them in order, or hide each card around the room so every answer leads to the next one.
  6. Read the opening story to the group and start a timer.
  7. When the group gets stuck, give one hint from the table, one at a time.
  8. Draw each station’s shape large on its sheet, with the measurements written on it.
  9. Give every team scrap paper; some pupils will want to sketch.
  10. Make station 2 active: measure out a “fence” 24 steps long with a rope.

Answers and hints (facilitator only)

StageAnswer / codeHints
1. The gate of sides13A triangle has 3 sides and a square has 4. · “Hex” means six.
2. The garden fence24Perimeter = all four sides added together. · 7 + 5 + 7 + 5.
3. The temple carpet48Area of a rectangle = length × width.
4. The missing angle70Add 50 + 60. · How much is missing to make 180?
5. Warm-up route · The symbols on the lock4Every symbol is a number. What is one symbol worth? · Add: 2 plus 2.
6. The Golden Gate7013Write 70 and straight after it 13.

Read at the end: The Golden Gate is open! You are now Guardians of the Temple of Shapes, and you’ve earned a crown shaped like an equilateral triangle.

🔺 The Temple of Shapes · Stage 1 of 6

The gate of sides

Three symbols are carved on the gate: a triangle, a square and a hexagon. To open it, you need to know how many sides all the shapes have together.

🔺 🟥 ⬡

What is the total number of sides of a triangle, a square and a hexagon?

✍️ Our answer:

🔺 The Temple of Shapes · Stage 2 of 6

The garden fence

The temple garden is a rectangle 7 meters long and 5 meters wide. The gardener wants to fence it all the way round.

How many meters of fence are needed? (What is the perimeter?)

✍️ Our answer:

🔺 The Temple of Shapes · Stage 3 of 6

The temple carpet

A rectangular carpet 8 meters long and 6 meters wide lies in the great hall.

What is the area of the carpet in square meters?

✍️ Our answer:

🔺 The Temple of Shapes · Stage 4 of 6

The missing angle

A stone triangle lies on the altar. One of its angles is 50 degrees and another is 60 degrees. The third angle is broken. Remember: the angles of every triangle add up to 180 degrees.

How many degrees is the third angle?

✍️ Our answer:

🔺 The Temple of Shapes · Stage 5 of 6

Warm-up route · The symbols on the lock

On the way to the last clue of “The Temple of Shapes” you find another corridor of locks. Every 🔺 is worth 2. Add two symbols.

🔺 + 🔺 = ?

Which number opens the lock?

✍️ Our answer:

🔺 The Temple of Shapes · Stage 6 of 6

The Golden Gate

The Golden Gate code is the answer from station 4 (the missing angle), followed by the answer from station 1 (the number of sides). For example, if the angle were 45 and the sides 12, the code would be 4512.

What is the Golden Gate code?

✍️ Our answer:

Facilitator guide: 🔺 The Temple of Shapes

What the room practices

Sides of polygons, perimeter, area and the angle sum of a triangle.

The 5 stations (without the answers)
  1. The gate of sides: What is the total number of sides of a triangle, a square and a hexagon?
  2. The garden fence: How many meters of fence are needed? (What is the perimeter?)
  3. The temple carpet: What is the area of the carpet in square meters?
  4. The missing angle: How many degrees is the third angle?
  5. The Golden Gate: What is the Golden Gate code?

Age and group size

Best with teams of 3–5 children. In a class or a big party, print a kit per team and run the room in parallel.

Giving hints in this room

Online the hints open one at a time; in the printed kit they sit in the facilitator table next to each answer. Give the first hint after a couple of minutes of silence, not at the first wrong guess.

Questions and answers

What age is “The Temple of Shapes” for, and how long does it take?

It was written for grades 4–6, at medium difficulty, and usually takes 20–30 minutes. It has 5 story stations, and online you can choose between three difficulty levels that add more locks.

What do I need to run “The Temple of Shapes”?

A printer and these props: Printed station sheets; Rulers (optional; all measurements are given); A 4-digit lock or a sealed envelope; Paper shapes for decoration. The printable kit includes a facilitator sheet with every answer and a card for each stage.

What if the players get stuck?

Every stage has graded hints. Online they open one at a time; in the printed kit they sit next to each answer on the facilitator sheet. The first hint never gives the answer away.

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