Coding Escape Room for Grades 3-5, Recycling Robot Reboot, Unplugged Printable Game

Designed by Creouts Publishing using original prompt(s) and AI (Claude by Anthropic). Illustrations made with AI image tools. Every puzzle is computer-checked to have exactly one answer.

RECYCLING ROBOT REBOOT: a coding-unplugged escape room game for Grades 3 to 5 (no computers needed)
At the Mendle Bay recycling yard, across a turquoise lagoon from a golden pyramid, Plinket the sorting robot sorts everything the town brings on Fix-It Day. Last night a storm made the power blink and Plinket froze: its screen just says REBOOT? Kibbo the hermit crab knows the trick. Plinket's six memory numbers are kept in the six jobs it does round the yard. Your crews run each job like coders, one station at a time. In the finale the six numbers must match the checksum on Plinket's screen, and then a decision-tree program turns them into the wake-up word.

THIS IS A PRINTABLE ESCAPE ROOM GAME for a classroom (4 to 6 teams) or for 1 to 6 children at home. It is not a book and not a worksheet pack: crews move around six stations, write each memory number on a Reboot Log, and crack one last lock together. Everything is paper: no computers, tablets, padlocks or boxes needed.

HOW IT PLAYS (65 to 80 minutes, or two shorter lessons)
- Story and Power-Up Check warm-up: run a first REPEAT loop
- Six stations, about 8 to 10 minutes each; every crew starts at a different one
- The Reboot Panel: add your six numbers. The total must match the checksum, so a single wrong number shows. Then run each number through the reboot program (YES / NO questions: even? more than 50? a multiple of 5?) to a letter
- The wake-up word reboots Plinket: certificates for everyone

SIX CODING IDEAS, SIX STATIONS (numbered from the easiest to the hardest, as our AI test solves ranked them)
- 1 The Crusher Shed, The Crusher Loops (LOOPS): run REPEAT blocks and keep a counter (Turbo: a loop inside a loop and REPEAT UNTIL)
- 2 The Drop-Off Yard, The Pickup Path (SEQUENCE): drive Plinket round a grid with arrow blocks and add what it picks up (Turbo: FORWARD, TURN LEFT / RIGHT and a REPEAT block)
- 3 The Sorting Belt, The Sorting Gate (IF-THEN): IF / ELSE IF / ELSE rules send each thing to a bin; total the blue bin in kilograms (Turbo: AND, OR, even numbers)
- 4 The Bale Yard, The Buggy Stack (DEBUGGING): a math pyramid of bales with one wrong number; find the bug and fix it
- 5 The Repair Bench, The Blank Screen (PIXEL CODE): decode run-length pixel rows to draw the picture back
- 6 The Make-It-New Machine, The Machine Stack (FUNCTIONS): a math pyramid built by a function rule; run it and undo it to work back

TWO LEVELS, ONE ANSWER KEY
- Starter Mode cards, Grades 3-4: arrow blocks on a 6 x 6 yard, two loops, three rules in order, a four-row stack, colored-square pixel codes, a +2 machine
- Turbo Mode cards, Grades 4-5: turns and REPEAT on a 7 x 7 yard, nested loops and REPEAT UNTIL, AND / OR rules, a five-row stack, plain-number pixel codes, a five-row machine stack worked back through a -1 rule
- Both levels of a station give the SAME number, so mixed classes play side by side and you check everyone with one key
- Coding words (program, loop, if-then, bug, pixel, function) are on every crew's Reboot Log and on a slide

3 KINDS OF MATH PYRAMID PUZZLE
- In the kit: the Buggy Stack (find the one wrong brick) and the Machine Stack (a function rule, worked back)
- In the free bonus folder: the Climb Program (a pyramid maze run by an IF / ELSE IF rule)

WHAT YOU GET (instant download, 4 PDF files)
- Full kit, US Letter (36 pages)
- Full kit, A4 (36 pages)
- Projector slides, 16:9 (12 slides: story, mission, coding words, move signal, countdown, the Reboot Panel, Plinket is awake!, answers)
- Tablet edition with tap-to-jump hint and answer buttons (classroom play needs the printed cards)
- Free bonus folder (QR code inside): Night Shift (4 fast-finisher cards with answers and hints: The Climb Program, a pyramid maze; The Light Panel, a message in binary; The Mixed-Up Sorter, a sorting network with a gap; The Flipped Card, a parity check) and ink-saver editions of every page

INSIDE THE KIT
- For the teacher: what to print and how many (with sheet counts), a room plan, an 80-minute and a 65-minute plan by the clock, a step-by-step script that also works without a projector, skills with CSTA computer science and Common Core math codes, an answer key with solved pictures, 3-step hint cards for every puzzle (where to start, the method, the worked answer)
- For every crew: mission page, Reboot Log with the warm-up, coding words and three batteries (hints), crew badges and job cards (Reader, Recorder, Checker, Runner)
- For the room: six full-color station signs
- The puzzles: 12 station cards (six stations, two levels) and the Reboot Panel card
- Two-up certificates with type-in names

YOU WILL NEED
Printer (color looks best; ink-saver pages are in the bonus folder), paper, pencils, scrap paper, a clock and tape for the signs. 30 to 40 minutes to print and set up the first time. Every crew writes on its own cards (or use plastic sleeves and dry-erase pens to save paper).

GOOD TO KNOW
- Digital download only: nothing is shipped.
- Print at 100% (actual size), single-sided.
- Coding unplugged: no devices, logins or apps. Great for a coding week, a computer science unit, math centers, a sub day, a STEM club or a party at home.
- Mendle Bay, Plinket and Kibbo are made up; the coding ideas are real. Hermit crabs really are nature's recyclers: they move into empty shells.
- Play times are plans, not promises: classes differ. Hints keep every crew moving.
- Not tested with a class: it was solved and set up from the printed pages alone by separate AI sessions, and their notes were acted on.
- Love math pyramids? Creouts Publishing also publishes math pyramid puzzle books in paperback (search "Creouts Publishing" on Amazon).

LICENSE
For one teacher's own classes, or one family or club. Print as many copies as you need for your own students. No resale, sharing, uploading or claiming as your own; no AI training.

Digital files cannot be returned.