Helpful English Puzzles

We are so used to being drilled for comprehension questions or creative writing essays that we forget that our brain can work in other ways. If you do not exercise your brain with puzzles and challenges that help you to think divergently, then you could be thrown by these questions.

Here are some ideas to help you use your brain in a more creative way so that when you are faced with these questions, you know how to think -

1. Write down 5-10 random letters. E.g. F S T L M. Then think of a sentence where each word starts with the next letter. Eg, Fred Simmonds tells lies maliciously. It really helps you focus on being grammatically correct as well as finding different ways to start sentences. Also, you could experiment with adding punctuation such as dashes or semi-colons.

2. Make a 3x3 grid and fill it with random letters. Then see how many words you can make from the letters and find the word with the most letters from the grid. This obviously helps with spelling but also rhyme and analogy.

3. Word chains. Think of a topic such as fruit. Write a word connected to that topic e.g. 'banana'. Then write another connected word beginning with the last letter of the previous word eg 'apple'. See how long you can keep going. This helps with developing vocabulary and spelling. I have used all these warm ups, and the children who participated found them both stimulating and enjoyable.