As the school year draws to a close, your students are probably eagerly anticipating the arrival of summer vacation! What could be a more exciting way to start the summer season than with a circus theme day filled with tons of circus activities? Step right up to a fun and learning-filled Circus Day at school with The Case of the Missing Peanuts! This Circus Day escape room allows students to celebrate the end of the year, all while revisiting essential math and literacy concepts covered throughout the year. Make the end of the year countdown memorable by engaging your students in these unforgettable Circus Day activities and centers!

Circus Day Escape Room

Step right up! Come one, come all to The Case of the Missing Peanuts End of the Year Escape Room! Help Miss Elephant discover who has stolen her salty snack!

To get the students excited about our circus activities, I like to set the stage with a note from Miss Elephant:

I’ve looked high and low,

Left and right,

But my tasty peanuts,

Are out of sight!

Will you help me,

Search for my treat?

Let’s find those peanuts,

So I can eat!

Tackle each challenge,

To receive a clue.

Eliminate the suspects,

And find out who!

After the students hear the note from Miss Elephant, they will be eager to dive into the challenges. But before they do, it is important to create their case files.

Using file folders is best, but a folded piece of construction paper works just as well.

The students will want to color the cover for their case files before attaching it to the front of their folder.

Just like a real detective, these case files will hold all of their completed circus activities and suspect elimination sheet.

Circus Activities and Centers Set Up

To set up the math and literacy centers, place the challenges inside manila envelopes. This will make it a little more authentic, but you could also fill tubs or baskets with each activity.

If you want to drop the mystery aspect, no problem! Just use these as regular math and literacy centers.

After the students complete each challenge, they will receive a clue from the guilty suspect.

Based on this clue, they will eliminate a suspect.

Once all of the challenges are complete, there will be one remaining guilty suspect!

Literacy Circus Activities

The literacy circus activities allow students to work on a variety of skills. Here is a sneak peek at the literacy skills the students will practice during Circus Day!

To solve the “Cotton Candy Challenge,” the students will match the upper and lowercase letters.

As they complete the “Peanut Challenge,” they will count the number of syllables and sort the pictures.

At the “Balloon Challenge,”  the students will decode each CVC word, and match the picture to the correct word.

Finally at the “Tent Tickets Challenge,” the students will listen for the ending digraph (ch, sh, th, ck), and sort each picture under the correct tent.

Math Circus Activities

Here is a quick look at the circus activities for math!

At the “Clown Challenge,” the students will order the clowns from the shortest to the tallest.

The students will sort the real life pictures by 3D shape at the “Seal Challenge.”

To solve the “Cannon Challenge,” the students will match the ten frames to the correct teen number.

For the last math center, the “Juggling Challenge,” the students will model each equation to solve the addition problem.

Circus Day Escape Room

Grab The Case of the Missing Peanuts Escape Room, including all eight math and literacy circus activities, here!

More End of the Year Theme Days

Your students might also enjoy these Camping Day activities!

Don’t forget to check out this Bubble Day!

Another theme day favorite is our Marshmallow Day!

DON’T FORGET IT… PIN IT!