THEME: Personal Passions, Interests and Fun Stuff
Lesson:Games … Brain Teasers … Puzzles …Energizers
As educators, we realize that there are times when it’s appropriate to simply “play”…to have fun together and get to know one another in this way.
This theme contains a selection of games, brain teasers and puzzles which you could use at these times. Try to find ways to vary the settings…individual work, pair work, “races” pitting one group against another, etc. This will allow continued “team building” to occur. Please be reminded of the purpose and outcomes of the student advisory program in determining which activities you put into play—promote positive relationships, foster a sense of belonging and develop social-emotional learning.
Several resources in the Advisory Library available from each school implementation team have some very worthwhile activities to explore. Check out the following books:
- The Advisory Guide: Designing and Implementing Effective Advisory Programs in Secondary Schools (2004) by Rachel Poliner and Carol Miller Lieber
- Are You More Like? 1001colorful quandaries for quality conversations (2002) by Chris Cavert and Susana Acosta
- Games (& other stuff) for Teachers: Classroom Activities that Promote Pro-social Learning (1999) by Chris Cavert, Laurie Frank & Friends;
It is assumed that teachers already have similar activities in their classroom repertoire. Theatre games and drama exercises are other good sources of activities. Add these to your collection, and continue to build and share these valuable resources. Above all, have fun!
Fun Puzzles
1. Below, 10 nine letter words have been broken into chunks of three letters. These chunks have been mixed up, no chunk is used twice and all chunks are used. Can you determine what the 10 words are?
rbr tim sag tel lig ent
hea dli ble whi htn fer
car age esc ing ind wat
til hai ush dif eta new
rlw all erf ope ent ght
2. A man wants to transport a fox, a chicken and some corn across a river. He has a rowboat, but it can only carry the man and one other item. If the fox and the chicken are alone together, the fox will eat the chicken. If the chicken and the corn are alone together, the chicken will eat the corn. How does the man do it?
3. Below you will find 15 well-known six letter words, with only their endings remaining. Can you determine the words?
...rnt
...few
...ryo
...yme
...rak
...urd
...ynx
...mpi
...hom
...ovy
...lpt
...hma
...voy
...web
...mur
4. Using the letters “AAEENNPPPPSS”, complete this grid. The grid reads the same across as down.
5. After the recent BrainBashers annual marathon, the judges were comparing notes to determine who finished where. From their notes, can you help them to reconstruct the final result?
Matthew Merryman beat Tom Trent and Jimmy James. Peter Piper beat Jimmy James, Tom Trent and Alan Ardman.
Zach Zebra lost to Peter Piper. Graham Goodfellow beat Tom Trent. Zach Zebra beat Frank Flintstone.
Graham Goodfellow lost to Frank Flintstone and Peter Piper. Tom Trent beat Brian Brick. Alan Ardman beat Zach Zebra, Kevin Kingfisher and Graham Goodfellow.
Kevin Kingfisher lost to Graham Goodfellow and Matthew Merryman. Brian Brick beat Kevin Kingfisher. Matthew Merryman lost to Alan Ardman and Zach Zebra. Frank Flintstone beat Tom Trent, Matthew Merryman and Brian Brick.
Tom Trent lost to Jimmy James and Alan Ardman. Jimmy James beat Graham Goodfellow and Brian Brick.
Answers
1. Answer: Telescope, timetable, hairbrush, different, waterfall, lightning, headlight, whirlwind, cartilage, newsagent.
2. Answer: He takes the chicken and then comes back. He then takes the fox and brings the chicken back. He then takes the corn and comes back. Finally he takes the chicken.
3. Answers: Learnt, curfew, embryo, enzyme, anorak, absurd, larynx, scampi, fathom, groovy, sculpt, asthma, convoy, cobweb, murmur.
4. Answer: The words are “snap, nape, apes, pest”.
5. Pete Piper won, followed by (in order):
AlanArdman
ZachZebra
FrankFlintstone
MatthewMerryman
JimmyJames
GrahamGoodfellow
TomTrent
BrianBrick
Kevin Kingfisher
Citations:
Brain Teasers
Work in pairs to solve the following: what saying or expression is illustrated in the boxes?
Answer Key: Brain Teasers
History repeats itself
Rail crossing
You’re under arrest
Update
Right beside me
Time after time
One in a million
Name ______
Sudoku Puzzle #1
Fill in the grid with digits in such a manner that every row, every column and every 3x3 box accommodates the digits 1-9, without repeating any.
5 / 67
1
/ 2
9 / 6
5
/ 8 / 3 / 7
5
4 / 8
2 / 5
/ 9 / 3
4
8
/ 7
3 / 8 / 1
2 / 4
5
1
/ 7
3 / 4
6
/ 3
2 / 9
7
Sudoku Puzzle #1…Solution
Fill in the grid with digits in such a manner that every row, every column and every 3x3 box accommodates the digits 1-9, without repeating any.
5 / 9 / 67 / 4 / 3
1 / 8 / 2
/ 1 / 4 / 2
9 / 6 / 8
3 / 5 / 7
/ 8 / 3 / 7
1 / 5 / 2
4 / 9 / 6
4 / 1 / 8
2 / 5 / 9
3 / 6 / 7
/ 2 / 9 / 3
4 / 7 / 6
5 / 8 / 1
/ 6 / 7 / 5
3 / 8 / 1
9 / 2 / 4
8 / 2 / 4
6 / 7 / 5
9 / 3 / 1
/ 7 / 1 / 9
8 / 3 / 4
6 / 2 / 5
/ 5 / 6 / 3
2 / 1 / 9
7 / 4 / 8
Name ______
Sudoku Puzzle #2
Fill in the grid with digits in such a manner that every row, every column and every 3x3 box accommodates the digits 1-9, without repeating any.
6 / 79 / 4
/ 4
6
9 / 2
/ 2 / 5
3
8
9
5
1 / 3
/ 3 / 4 / 1
5
/ 5
4 / 1
9
6 / 5
8 / 1
/ 8
9 / 1
6
/ 1
6 / 8
3
Sudoku Puzzle #2…Solution
Fill in the grid with digits in such a manner that every row, every column and every 3x3 box accommodates the digits 1-9, without repeating any.
6 / 8 / 79 / 2 / 4
5 / 3 / 1
/ 1 / 3 / 4
5 / 8 / 6
7 / 9 / 2
/ 9 / 2 / 5
7 / 3 / 1
8 / 6 / 4
2 / 9 / 6
7 / 5 / 8
1 / 4 / 3
/ 3 / 4 / 1
2 / 6 / 9
8 / 7 / 5
/ 5 / 8 / 7
4 / 1 / 3
2 / 9 / 6
3 / 6 / 5
4 / 7 / 2
8 / 1 / 9
/ 4 / 2 / 8
9 / 1 / 3
6 / 5 / 7
/ 1 / 7 / 9
6 / 5 / 8
3 / 4 / 2