Hello everyone,

I'm new on this site, but I have already been teaching.  I am at middle school, but my 3rd years are a bit disinterested because they already had their final exam.

I tried this lesson idea with them today and it really worked.  Basically it's a riddle race.  There is no worksheet to download, please make your own.

Take a look at the riddles here (the answers are there too, but don't peek until you've had a go):
http://www.wilk4.com/humor/humore14.htm

The riddles are quite common in many places on the net.  I used all except number 4, but it would depend on your students.  I edited the text a little to make sure the English was clear.  I put them into a Word doc and numbered them, and put gaps between them.  I printed 12 copies and cut them into horizontal strips so there is one numbered riddle per strip (and 12 strips with the same riddle on each).

In class I split them up into groups of three students and told them to take riddle number one.  When they had the answer they had to come and tell me.  If it was right they can get the next riddle.

This lasted for 30 minutes of a 45 minute lesson.  Most teams got to riddle 5, a few only to 4, and some to 6.  I only had to translate a couple of words as the teams worked well together to understand the whole of each riddle.  I also had some really interesting answers which shows they were thinking.  The kids really enjoyed it and wanted to keep going.

Sorry if this idea has already appeared.  I checked on the site and couldn't find anything quite the same.

Thank you.

I thought about posting a word doc, but it's very simple to put together, and has to be tailored anyway. The time-consuming part is cutting the strips out.

I am glad you found the suggestion useful.

MRS. FRISBY!!!  You, my friend should get some sort of teaching activity idea gold medal.  That activity was SO much fun and the girls REALLY loved it.  Thank you so much!  Where in the world did you come up with that idea?!  You must be some kind of genius...

This is a great idea and these riddles are wonderful. I'm stuck on some of them but I think my middle school boys wil enjoy trying to figure them out!

Thank you

I'm bumping this lesson because it has worked so well for me in the past during the post-test period! Take the 15-20 mins of prep it takes! It'll be worth it! I play it like the OP said... but play for the whole class and then offer prizes to the team/teams that get the farthest. It's great because even students who are really low level can participate after the other students explain it to them.

This is awesome.  I'm going to use this after my school finishes their exams.

Here are the riddles I used; typed out and ready to cut. I added some pictures to a few of them just to help, if only a little. Generally, most classes got to around 7 or 8 with a couple small hints. And about 99% student participation, though I did not use this class with basic classes as the sentences would basically just be Korean before they understood.

This lesson was awesome! Exactly what I needed this week since most of my high school kids are stressed about exams. I opened up by asking students to come up with the answers for some of these Konglish jokes   http://www.waygook.org/index.php?topic=11636.0      It got them started thinking outside the box and was a nice segue into the riddles.

My classes that are usually less attentive really got into it and I was hearing shy kids speak a lot of English.   I am thinking in the future, short riddles might be a great warm-up for class!

Thank you for posting a low-tech lesson! I teach kids on Saturday and I don't have anything beyond a whiteboard so lessons like these are a godsend.

Also people on Waygook rely on Powerpoint wayyyyy too much.