Teacher note
Enter the teacher password to see the answers and testing tools.
How it runs
- Teams of 3 or 4 share one Chromebook. The game tells them to pass the mouse after every puzzle so everyone gets a turn to drive.
- Plan on 60 to 75 minutes (it can be split over two class periods with progress codes). Students explore 10 places in the Toy Workshop, help 9 toymakers, and collect 9 clues about the conveyor belt (Grandma Gale gives a 10th at the start). The finale is coding: they write a program of arrows that moves a toy through every station in the right order and into the sleigh, then watch it run.
- The story fits any winter break. It is about a toy workshop and sled dog teams, and it does not mention any one holiday.
- The workshop opens up as they go: Chef Olu's Warehouse Key opens the Warehouse, Tess's Snow Boots open the Outside area, and Juno turns the power back on for the Toy Machine.
- Skills: repeating and growing patterns, surface area of boxes from nets, scaling a recipe with fractions, measuring to the nearest quarter inch (including cars that do not start at 0), arrays and the area model for multiplication, sleigh weight limits (making exact sums), multi-step word problems, coordinate grids with compass directions, input and output rules (functions), and coding with sequences of arrows (planning and debugging).
- The finale: four clues give the station order, four clues name cracked belt squares by their grid coordinates (C2, C3, A3, A4), and two clues explain the rules. The cracked squares look normal on the belt, so teams must use the clues and mark them. When they press Run, the toy rolls through their program. If it jams, the team sees where, then waits 20, 40, then 60 seconds before running again, so planning beats guessing.
- Wrong answers on the other puzzles lock that puzzle for a short wait (15 seconds, then 30, 45, 60). Hints: 3 per puzzle (the belt has 3 too), one every 45 seconds.
- The Belt Notes button on the side has a pencil grid: teams can mark cracked squares with an X any time. The marks also show on the real belt.
- Bonus: 11 gold snowflakes are hidden in the rooms. The count prints on the award.
- Progress codes: after every puzzle the team gets a 10 letter code (like
KDHTM-7XQMP), also shown on the side. Have one student write the newest code on paper. If a browser resets or the team switches Chromebooks, they type it on the start screen and get back their team name, every solved puzzle (in any order), open areas, items, hints and time. Made-up codes do not work, and after 3 wrong tries the box makes them wait 20 seconds. Typing their own code again on the same computer keeps any wait that is still running, so reloading the page cannot skip a wrong answer wait. A code always brings its own team name, and that name prints on the award. - The "Left this page" counter on the side goes up every time someone switches to another tab or window. It does not stop the game. A high number can mean someone went looking for answers, for example by taking a screenshot to an AI helper, so it is worth a quick check in.
- Everything in this room (the workshop, the characters and the story) is original, so it is safe to share. The facts on the clickable spots are real.
Timer
Minutes until the sled teams leave: (teams can keep playing in overtime; the award says "Solved in overtime")
Answers
- Paint Shop, Bram: bead 12 is yellow, bead 50 is blue, 10 yellow beads in the first 40, tower 5 has 15 blocks, tower 7 has 28.
- Wrapping Room, Wren: Box A (3 by 3 by 3) 54, Box B (5 by 3 by 2) 62, Box C (4 by 4 by 1) 48 square units.
- Cocoa Kitchen, Chef Olu: 8 mugs cocoa 1 1/2 cups, 12 mugs sugar 2 cups, 2 mugs milk 2 cups, 12 mugs marshmallows 1 1/2 cups. Gives the Warehouse Key.
- Toy Train Room, Ivy: Car 1 2 1/4, Car 2 3 1/2, Car 3 1 3/4 (from 1 to 2 3/4), Car 4 2 3/4 (from 1/2 to 3 1/4) inches.
- Toy Storage, Hattie: 48 (6 rows of 8), 8, 70, 14, 84.
- Sleigh Barn, Tess: any loading where the Big Sleigh holds exactly 50, the Middle 40 and the Small 35. One way: 25 + 15 + 10 = 50, 20 + 12 + 8 = 40, 18 + 17 = 35. Gives the Snow Boots.
- Sled Dog Kennel, Kai: 48 booties, 8 packs, 180 scoops.
- Map Room, Odette: Stop 1 F4, Stop 2 C5, Stop 3 E1.
- Lantern Tower, Juno: the rule is times 3, then add 1. IN 5 gives 16, IN 10 gives 31, OUT 22 comes from IN 7. Turns on the Toy Machine.
- The belt: station order Build (A1), Bounce Test (C1), Sparkle Spray (C4), Wrap Roller (A2), Bow Bot (D2), Name Tag Printer (F3), Sleigh (G5). Cracked: C2, C3, A3, A4. Snow piles: D3, E1, C5. One program (22 steps): right 2 (Bounce Test), left 1, up 3, right 1 (Sparkle Spray), left 1, down 2, left 1 (Wrap Roller), right 1, down 1, right 2 (back over the Bounce Test, which is allowed), up 1 (Bow Bot), right 2, up 1 (Name Tag Printer), right 1, up 2 (Sleigh). Other correct programs also work.