How to Use Riddles in the Classroom
Many children love riddles and love sharing them with others. A riddle provides enough information to determine the answer using logic and deductive reasoning. Teachers can use riddles to peak students' interest and help them think through the clues to find the answer. The riddles can make learning more fun and enjoyable than lectures and rote learning. You can use riddles with any subject area or grade level. You may want to have riddles rated by difficulty to challenge students according to their abilities.
Things You'll Need
- Riddle sheets
- Prizes
- Point or dollar value sheets
- Computers
- United States map
Instructions
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Create a list of riddle questions you can use over the course of several weeks. Incorporate topics you have recently covered or have laid previous background for. For example, if you have studied flowers found in local gardens, you might include a list of questions called "Name that Flower" and include facts about a specific flower your students can identify. Display point value sheets in the classroom of prizes that can be won (such as stars and special classroom supplies) by solving the riddle. Post a new riddle each day and award points to the student who first answers the question correctly.
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Set up math problems in the form of riddles. Divide the students into groups and give each group a page of math riddles to solve. Award prizes to the group that solves the riddles the fastest. Group students according to learning levels and use more complicated riddles with your more gifted students to make the playing field more level.
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Use a story that the class has recently read and create a list of riddles that relate to the characters in the story. Create riddles that follow the sequence of events in the story. Use the two sets of riddles to tell the story. For example, your first riddle might read, "I wander the woods with a basket and a red cloak. I am on my way to grandmother's house. Who am I?" followed by "Who will arrive at grandmother's house before I do?"
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Pass out a "State Riddles" sheet and an "Eliminate the States" handout to groups of students. Allow them access to the Internet, United States maps and other resources. Encourage students to use whatever resources will help them eliminate some states until they find the correct answer to each riddle.
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Challenge students to design riddles of their own based on recent lesson material. Have them create as many as possible and continue the process as you cover new materials. Collect riddles over the course of several weeks and compile them for a classroom competition.
Hold your riddle competition using elimination rounds. Award successful students play money or points at the end of each round. Have a list of prizes or privileges a student may purchase with accumulated "dollars" or points.
Keep a record of which student contributed which riddles so that you don't ask a student his own riddles. Have the students agree not to answer their own riddles unless every student in the class is stumped.
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References
- Photo Credit computer classroom image by Christopher Meder from Fotolia.com
