Logophiles and verbivores, this post is for you! Even if you’re not a word lover, you have many students who are, and injecting wordplay into your school day not only enhances the language arts curriculum, it adds fun and laughter to your day. Here are a few ways to leverage a little language levity (with a hint of math, too, in some cases).
Pun and Games ~ Many years ago, my class was treated to a presentation by Richard Lederer, prolific author of books about language, history, and humor, and founding co-host of “A Way With Words” radio show. I had no idea how lucky I was that his nephew was in my class! Since then, I’ve been a fan and I have used his book, Pun and Games (affiliate link), in my class for years. Much more than just puns, the contents include “Tairy Fales,” “Inflationary Language,” and “Silver Spoonerisms,” among other things, and truly delighted my students, introducing them to boundless creativity with words! Favorite activities in my class were figuring out the”Hink Pinks” and deciphering “Jack and the Twoderful Beans,” which requires a little mathematical thinking!
Mathematical Poetry
Here’s another form of wordplay that involves math operations. In a book called The Secret Life of Words: Poetry Exercises and Activities by Betsy Franco and Maria Damon, I found instructions for writing mathematical poetry, introduced by a Florida poet named Bob Grumman. I was immediately drawn to the idea of such an unusual connection -math and poetry. Watch a few slides in the video below, created by my 2nd through 5th- grade gifted students, and you will need no further explanation. (Again, my apologies for the outdated graphics! It’s an oldie!) We ended up connecting with Bob Grumman; my students were thrilled!
Word Creations ~ Some of your students may love the challenges of penning their own word creations. You can find examples of many types of wordplay on FUN WITH WORDS: THE WORDPLAY WEB SITE. Introduce your students to ambiguities such as “Kids make nutritious snacks,” and to pangrams (sentences that include every letter of the alphabet). If they write their own, the site welcomes submissions and will post them! You’ll also find an anagram generator there.
For more activities like these, see also "More Pun and Games: A Little Language Levity"
On his site Byrdseed, Ian Byrd also shares ways to get kids playing with words while adding depth and complexity to vocabulary and language instruction. There are great books that can complement the teaching of wordplay in multiple grade levels such as The King Who Rained, an oldie but goodie, How Much Can a Bare Bear Bear? from the Words are CATegorical® series, and Homophones Visualized, which could entice even middle schoolers to draw their own versions.
Here are a few additional resources:
- WORD WINKS – verbal puzzles by Mindware
- ANALOGY CHALLENGES – advanced vocabulary in analogies used to solve a puzzle
- A LIST OF WORD GAMES for GIFTED STUDENTS
- COOL WORDS from AA to ZZZ
There are so many more! Add your favorites in the comments and tell us how you use them with your students! And if you want these blog posts sent to you directly once a month, consider subscribing to BIG IDEAS for LITTLE SCHOLARS.
My 3rd and 4th graders LOVED creating their own Mathematical Poetry. We are in the midst of a poetry unit and they had so much fun writing these ideas. Thank you Donna for the creative idea!!
That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing, Julie!