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1-Puns
Introduction:
The benefits:
1-It can help students feel more comfortable in their
new language.
2-A shared moment of humor lowers the effective
filter, that invisible barrier that makes learners feel
awkward and uncomfortable.
3-If a class can laugh together, they are likely to
learn better together,
4-They build meta-linguistic awareness, or
conscious awareness of the forms of language,
and this, in turn, helps in learning more language
Puns:
Puns are a special form of humor based on double
meaning. They require processing the sound and
meaning of words twice, puns demand considerable
language agility. The humor of puns is based on
language play.
1: Soundalike puns
Soundalike
puns are based on homophones,
words that sound the same, but have different
spellings and meanings (e.g., hair/hare; to/too/ two).
An example of a soundalike pun is the sign for a
daycare provider that reads “Wee Care Day Care.”
The words we and wee are homophones, which
gives “Wee Care” two meanings.
On the one hand, the phrase “we care” serves
as a statement of philosophy by the business to
show that they care about the children they take
care of.The meaning of the compound noun, which
can be paraphrased as “care of little ones,” adds
an appealing dimension to the name of the
business.
2-Lookalike puns
Polysemous
words are spelled and pronounced
the same and have related meanings (e.g., “ruler”
as a measuring stick or a king; “mole” as a
burrowing mammal or a spy). Polysemous words
create lookalike puns.
3: Close-sounding puns
When one word is substituted for another that
sounds like it, whether the substitution is for a
single word or part of a phrase, that can create
a close-sounding pun. An example of a close-
sounding pun is a sign seen on a van in Chicago:
“Ex-stink Sewer and Drainage.” This humorous
title for a plumbing business is based on the
close pronunciation of “Ex-stink” and the word
extinct.
4: Texting puns
(alphabetic, numeric, and simplified spelling)
Alphabetic, numeric, and simplified spelling can
create texting puns. These are based on the
increasingly common practice of using the sound
and/or spelling of alphabet letters, numbers or
symbols, or simplified spelling as a way to represent
or “spell” a word. Examples might be “cre8” for the
word create, or “@mosphere” for atmosphere.
English Teacher Puns
History Teacher Puns
Using Puzzles in the Classroom
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The other day a well-meaning teacher made
a comment that went something like this:
“I wish my centers could be as easy as just
adding puzzles and games.” I had to take a
deep breath, count slowly to 10 and then I
chose to smile and walk away.
{I’m pretty sure she did not want to hear my
thesis on the benefits of puzzles and games.}
But it got me thinking and evaluating my
classroom. I don’t ever want to be filling my
learning time with “just puzzles” or “just games”
or any fluff activities. Instead I want my
students to be participating in activities that
are rooted in learning academic and life skills.
2. Shape Puzzles
I love, love, love using pattern blocks and
shape puzzles in my classroom. Not only are
students exposed to important shapes, but
these puzzles come in a variety of complexity
levels making it easy to differentiate for the
needs of my students.
Using pattern blocks as the pieces also
teaches spacial recognition skills and
geometric thinking – both of which are
important to their future success in math.
Without even knowing the mathematical
term, your students will be practicing skills
like rotation and reflection.
I love creating these to coordinate with themes
and holidays in our classroom. It doesn’t
change the important skills the students are
learning, but it definitely adds an element of
engagement.
The other thing I really love about these is
the ability to differentiate. Each of the puzzles
comes in three versions: a full color version,
a black and white version that shows the
outline of each piece and a black and white
that only shows the shape outline. These
varying degrees of difficulty allow my to keep
each of my students challenged. Here’s a
sample of the different levels from the
transportation set:
It’s not JUST a Puzzle
I love using puzzles in my classroom and my
students love them too. But in my quest to make
sure I was doing my students justice I set off to
confirm what I already knew: Puzzles have so
many wonderful academic and life skills associated
with them that they are a perfect classroom activity!
Puzzles have been shown to help students with
fine motor development, hand-eye coordination,
problem solving skills and so much more. There
are lots of different types of puzzles. Here’s just a
few that I use in my classroom:
1. Jigsaw Puzzles
There are times when I have a puzzle center in
the classroom using jigsaw puzzles. At the
beginning of the year we may start with smaller
puzzles that have 24-36 pieces. But as the year
goes on we increase the complexity of the puzzles.
I have stocked up on puzzles of all shapes and
sizes from the Dollar Store and Garage Sales.
I always love finding puzzles that connect to our
learning themes or concepts, but that does not
always happen. Although the picture might not be
academic in nature, I know that my students are
working on important thinking skills and building
analytical thinking patterns that will later help them
academically.
2. Shape Puzzles
I love, love, love using pattern blocks and shape
puzzles in my classroom. Not only are students
exposed to important shapes, but these puzzles
come in a variety of complexity levels making it
easy to
differentiate for the needs of my students.
Using pattern blocks as the pieces also teaches
spacial recognition skills and geometric thinking –
both of which are important to their future success
in math. Without even knowing the mathematical
term, your students will be practicing skills like
rotation and reflection.
I love creating these to coordinate with themes
and holidays in our classroom. It doesn’t change
the important skills the students are learning,
but it definitely adds an element of engagement.
The other thing I really love about these is the
ability to differentiate. Each of the puzzles comes
in three versions: a full color version, a black and
white version that shows the outline of each piece
and a black and white that only shows the shape
outline. These varying degrees of difficulty allow
my to keep each of my students challenged.
Here’s a sample of the different levels from the
transportation set:
3-Riddles
1-They introduce intellectual humor to learners.
2-They help learners to work their minds.
3-They make learners read for comprehension.
4-They expand learners' vocabulary.
5-They give learners the chance to learn riddles
and teach them to others.
6-They make a bond with the learners in their
future life.
