Riddles return.
Teaching April 11th. 2008, 10:24pmI had a little time to search the Internet before classes, and I found a few riddles my students could do at any level. I had challenged my lowest level class for the day to write three to four sentence animal riddles. They had to write them in their notebooks, and as I checked their homework on the board, I’d write up their best for the rest of the class to solve.
“I am an insect. I drink blood. I like wet places. What am I?” was the best riddle my students made. After they finished all the riddles, I wrote one for them up on the board. I wrote “isisisisisisisisisis” on the board at the beginning of class, but it took them to the end to solve what it meant. They thought it was a very good, funny riddle.
Later, in higher classes, I repeated the same riddle. The middle level students, when told the answer (they didn’t solve it) said they hated me, and thought my riddle was lame. They think everything I do is lame, so I don’t pay much attention to them.
My higher level classes both thought that it was an amusing riddle. I had a few more riddles that went pretty well. I’ll post the answers in shortly in the comments.
Riddle Challenge
1. “isisisisisisisisisis”
2. “I am a man with four or five hands, but I’m normal. How is this possible?”
3. What is something the poor have, the rich don’t need, and if you eat it, you will die?
4. What begins and ends everything?
7 Responses to “Riddles return.”
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April 11th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
1. Tennis
2. Wearing a watch that may or may not have a second hand
3. Asbestos (try to deny it!)
4. Jesus Christ (the Alpha and the Omega…may not be your answer, but it’s theologically true)
April 11th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
The first two are correct. The two others might be true based on your particular cynical or religious nature.
April 12th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Thanks for reminding me about the original riddle you posted - I’ll be using that one with my students on Monday.
You can spy, but you can’t spook.
April 12th, 2008 at 8:24 am
3. Nothing (though there’s some very bad English in “The rich don’t need nothing” - should be the rich need it). Anyway, it’s a sloppy answer, because I’ve eaten nothing in the last three hours and I’m still alive.
4. e and g? I hate riddles with answers like that. It would be better if the answer was about something that end everything by beginning - e.g. entropy (it began a long time ago, and will eventually get us all).
April 12th, 2008 at 9:29 am
ELFGeek, you’ve got that backwards. YOU can spook, but you can’t spy.
April 12th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Yes, all the solutions are now available in the comments.
April 16th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
I’m lost. I didn’t get the first one. Why Tennis? What have tennis got to do with “isisisisisisisisisis”?