A free printable Easter escape room for work

What you need for the Easter escape room

• Six plastic eggs per team, numbered 1 to 6 with a marker
• The printed cards, folded so each fits inside its egg
• A pencil per team and a timer everyone can see
• A small box with a four-digit lock, or the host simply holds the prize
• The golden egg: a plastic egg painted gold, a foil-wrapped chocolate egg, or a non-chocolate treat for anyone with allergies

Short on prep time, or half the team is remote? A host runs a ready-made virtual escape room on video, with the puzzles, the breakout rooms and the scoring handled.

The story: Juniper's golden egg hunt

Read this aloud to start the game, then start a 45-minute timer.

Every spring, Juniper Ames, who runs the office, hides one golden egg somewhere in the building, and the team that finds it wins first pick of the spring treats and bragging rights until next year. This year Juniper is on vacation, but she didn't skip the hunt. On her desk sits a basket of six numbered plastic eggs and a note: "No running between desks this year. Every egg holds a puzzle, and every answer earns you the next egg. Crack all six and the golden egg is yours. You have 45 minutes. Happy spring! J."

The 6 egg puzzles

One card goes in each numbered egg. Hand them out in order: a team only gets the next egg after the host hears the right answer. Teams keep every card, because the last puzzle needs them.

1. Egg 1: The egg carton

   Inside egg 1 is a sketch of the break room egg carton, with a rule in Juniper's handwriting.

   Juniper numbered the cups the way you read: 1 to 6 on the top row, 7 to 12 on the bottom. A dotted egg is worth its cup number. Every other egg is worth nothing, and a cracked egg is worth nothing, dots or not. Add them up.

   The lock: A two-digit number

2. Egg 2: The bunny's hop trail

   A five-by-five grid of letters, a carrot in the top-left corner, and a list of the bunny's hops.

   	A	P	L	S
   O	M	U	C	K
   R	B	R	G	I
   H	D	F	A	W
   E	Y	T	O	N

   Hops: right, down, right, down, left, left, up

   Start on the carrot. The bunny always hops over one square and lands on the next, so every hop moves two squares. Write down each letter the bunny lands on.

   The lock: A seven-letter word: where egg 3 is hiding

3. Egg 3: The windowsill plants

   Four coworkers each potted one spring plant for the office windowsill, each in a different pot. Juniper wants to know one thing.

   1. Omar planted the tulip.
   2. The daisy is in the yellow pot.
   3. Ines's pot is green.
   4. Lou didn't plant the daisy or the hyacinth.
   5. The tulip isn't in the white pot.

   Planters: Omar, Bea, Lou, Ines. Plants: tulip, daisy, hyacinth, sunflower. Pots: blue, yellow, white, green. What color is the sunflower's pot?

   The lock: A color

4. Egg 4: The cracked eggs

   Four paper eggs cracked in half. The top halves are still in a row; the bottom halves fell out, got mixed up, and two that don't belong landed with them.

   Top halves, in order

   • DAFF
   • RAIN
   • BLOS
   • PUDD

   Bottom halves, jumbled

   • SOM7
   • ARD2
   • LE5
   • ODIL3
   • UST8
   • BOW9

   Match each top half to the bottom half that finishes a spring word. Read the bottom halves' numbers in the order of the top halves.

   The lock: A four-digit number

5. Egg 5: The flower bed sums

   Juniper planted three rows. Every tulip is worth the same number, every daisy the same, and every bee the same.

   TULIP + TULIP + TULIP = 12

   TULIP + DAISY = 11

   DAISY − BEE − BEE = 3

   The lock: A three-digit number: the bee, then the tulip, then the daisy

6. Egg 6: Juniper's last note

   Juniper's last note, and a small box with a four-digit lock. Keep every card you've solved: you'll need them.

   First: the dotted eggs that stayed whole.

   Second: how many hops the bunny made.

   Third: what one bee is worth.

   Last: the letters in the sunflower pot's color.

   The lock: A four-digit number

How to run it at the office or on Zoom

About 20 minutes of setup. The host keeps the eggs, checks answers and times the teams.

In the office

1. 1Print and fill. Print one set of cards per team and fold each card into its numbered egg. Keep the answer key for yourself.
2. 2Hide two eggs for real (optional). With one or two teams, put egg 3 in the printer's paper tray and egg 4 behind a white plant pot, and let teams go and find them. With more teams, just hand every egg over.
3. 3Split into teams. Teams of 3 to 6, one table each. Mix departments so the word people and the number people meet.
4. 4Start the clock. Read Juniper's note, start a 45-minute timer and hand every team egg 1.
5. 5Check answers. A team brings you its answer. Say only "yes" or "not yet". On a yes, hand over the next egg.
6. 6Finish with the box. The first team to open the four-digit box wins the golden egg. Post every team's time when the clock stops.

On Zoom, Teams or Google Meet

1. 1Make one file per egg. Print the kit to PDF, then save each card as its own page or image. Never send the page with the answer key.
2. 2Open breakout rooms. One room per team. Each team picks a captain who shares the current card on screen.
3. 3Answers by direct message. Captains send answers to the host in a private chat. On a yes, the host sends the next card file.
4. 4Broadcast time checks. Send a message to every room at 15, 30 and 40 minutes so teams know where they stand.
5. 5Reveal the golden egg on camera. Bring everyone back to the main room, read the finale and show the golden egg. Mail or deliver the real prize later.

More than six teams on video is a lot for one host to check. A host can run Beach Vacate-tion Escape Room instead, with every team solving at once in its own breakout room.

Host script: the 45-minute run sheet

1. 0:00 · 3 min

   Read Juniper's note. Read the story aloud, start a 45-minute timer and hand every team egg 1.

2. 0:03 · 4 min

   Egg 1: The egg carton. A quick warm-up. Listen for teams that count the cracked egg.

3. 0:07 · 7 min

   Egg 2: The bunny's hop trail. The trickiest instruction. If a team reads AMURBRO, remind them bunnies hop over a square.

4. 0:14 · 8 min

   Egg 3: The windowsill plants. The longest think. Suggest one person reads the clues while another fills a little grid.

5. 0:22 · 7 min

   Egg 4: The cracked eggs. Fast once someone spots DAFFODIL. Watch for teams stuck on the two decoys.

6. 0:29 · 5 min

   Egg 5: The flower bed sums. Quick for number people. Pair them with the word people from egg 4.

7. 0:34 · 6 min

   Egg 6: Juniper's last note. Teams need their old cards. Note each team's time as it opens the box.

8. 0:40 · 5 min

   Finale and results. Read the finale, post finish times and hint counts, and hand over the golden egg.

Hint rules to announce at the start:

• Each team gets three free hints for the whole game.
• Every extra hint adds two minutes to the team's final time.
• The host gives hint 1 for an egg before hint 2, and never the answer.

Hints and answer key

For the host. Each egg has two hints, the answer, why it works and the line to read when a team gets it. Spoilers inside.

Make it yours: spring hunt, timing and size

1. 1Call it a spring hunt. Nothing in the room is religious. Name it the Spring Egg Hunt and it fits teams who celebrate Easter, other spring holidays or none.
2. 2Pick your week. Easter Sunday is March 28, 2027, so many teams run it the week before. It works any time in spring; the first day of spring is Saturday, March 20, 2027.
3. 3Use your own people. Rename Juniper after whoever runs your office (ask them first), and swap Omar, Bea, Lou and Ines for teammates' first names.
4. 4Make it harder. Cut the timer to 30 minutes and drop the second hint for every egg.
5. 5Make it bigger. One host can run about 6 teams. Past that, add a helper per 6 teams to check answers.

Need a prize worth racing for? A box of chocolates for the winning team always lands; see these Easter gifts for employees. Rather skip the puzzles and play? A host runs Spring Time Fun & Games, an hour of light spring games on video.