Free Brain Teasers

Q: Q: Why do you use so many Brain Teasers in the teaching of spelling skills?

A: Brain teasers, along with Crosswords , Word Scrambles , and other Word Play puzzlers serve the important function of making words FUN for learners of all ages! Put yourself in your students' shoes. Would YOU rather practice rote repetition and sit through predictable worksheets week after week, OR would you rather solve some ENTERTAINING riddles, jokes and puzzlers? And, ask yourself, what would you rather teach?!?! To be clear, the pages here are full curriculum. They are supplemental pages to reinforce important content.

Level One

Brain with active gears, from our Free Brain Teaser Collection at www.spelling-words-well.com

Jump down the page to try to some fun, quick free brain teasers right now! Or scroll through this list of pages of longer brain teaser activities.

Our free brain teasers are just right folks of any age who want to start out with easy-to-solve puzzlers. They're just right for adults who want a quick challenge, or for younger students. They're also great for ESL students.

On this page, you'll find links to several pages of puzzlers, plus additional free samples. Be sure to read through the whole list! We also have more difficult Brain Teasers here.

Free Brain Teasers

Brain teasers and answers, a collection, from www.spelling-words-well.com

1. 12 Free Brain Teasers with Answers right on the web. Quick-thinking spelling word play exercises that are fun for all ages. Complete word transformations and more!

2. Mystery Words - Printable worksheets, especially for kids. They'll need to carefully read the directions, use critical thinking skills and spelling skills to find the mystery words. Fun and challenging!

3. NEW! A Second Set of Mystery Words in a printable worksheet, especially good for 2nd and 3rd graders. Don't miss this opportunity to provide great practice in spelling and critical thinking skills!

Cartoon boy writing on a paper at desk, from one of the free brain teasers at www.spelling-words-well.com

4. Spelling Quiz Brain Teasers - These printable brain teasers require students to identify correctly/incorrectly spelled words, then match each quiz to the student who completed it. Logical fun!

5. Easy Brain Teaser Questions - Are they all really easy for you? More word play fun with lots of spelling topics. These quick questions are great to try to solve on your own. They're also fun to do with your family, students or co-workers. ESL students can enjoy these puzzlers, too.

6. Magic Word Squares - 7 printable word brain teasers. Kids will complete squares in which the same words are spelled in both directions.

7. Picture Puzzlers - 2 Printable brain teaser worksheets where knowing how to spell simple words is a must! In these reproducibles, students will solve clues to discover hidden words. They'll need to carefully read the clues and know the spellings for each picture.

Important Note

Always be sure to read and solve any brain teaser before assigning it to your students to be sure it's at a suitable level of difficulty. This will also help you to anticipate the challenges your students are likely to face when they try to solve it.

8. Multiple-Meaning Jokes and Riddles - Light-hearted word fun! What a great way to practice language skills! To solve these riddles, you’ll need to use words that have more than one meaning. For example, a story can mean a legend or news account, or it can mean the level of a building. The first joke uses this word.

9. Hilarious Homonyms - More word play riddles featuring words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings. Examples are two/to/too and capital/capitol. These provide great practice with homophones for students, plus they'll learn some jokes to take home and explain to their families!

Fun Brain Teasers for Students These fun brain teasers will check your students' spelling and vocabulary skills. They’ll also tickle their funny bones!

Try these brain teasers now!

Our collection contains two types of brain teasers. First, we have some quick questions and answers, like these. (Scroll down for answers.)

1. What words can you list that are spelled with an H as both the first and last letters?

2. If you were to list all the number words from 1 to 10 in alphabetical order, which one comes first? Which comes last?

3. What word is both an important part of the body and also a part of a book?

1. Answers include hurrah, hunch, hutch, hitch, hawkish, and others. 2. eight, two 3. spine

Secondly, we have printable teasers. Here's a fun one to get you started. Solve it here or get the printable version. Then read through the list above to find more fun, free brain teasers of both types.

The One that Slipped Away easy brain teaser from www.spelling-words-well.com

Answers to The One that Slipped Away

Tricky Crosswords

Second Place Trivia - Can you name the second longest river, the second least densely populated country, and more? Try this challenging free crossword puzzle and find out!

Muddled Music Crossword - Sharpen your focus to solve this one! Replace one or two letters in each clue to spell a musical term.

FAQs

Q: Why do you use so many Brain Teasers in the teaching of spelling skills?

A: Brain teasers, along with Crosswords, Word Scrambles , and other Word Play puzzlers serve the important function of making words FUN for learners of all ages! Put yourself in your students' shoes. Would YOU rather practice rote repetition and sit through predictable worksheets week after week, OR would you rather solve some ENTERTAINING riddles, jokes and puzzlers?

And, ask yourself, what would you rather teach?!?! To be clear, the pages here are full curriculum. They are supplemental pages to reinforce important content.

Q: Can you recommend another source or two for fun word play?

A: Of course! Check out my Think-A-Spell eBook of spelling brain teaser questions and the 101 Word Play puzzler eBook. My other website, www.word-game-world.com, is packed with brain teasers, cryptograms, crosswords, word searches and lots more, many of which require precise spelling to succeed. All content is family friendly!

Try these new Memory Games from my other website. Fun for all ages!

Ann Richmond Fisher is a longtime published educational writer, a former classroom teacher and a former homeschool teacher. Ann's spelling bee resources, graded spelling word lists, spelling games, worksheets, and other language arts resources have become respected around the globe since she launched Spelling-Words-Well in 2010.

Ann is also the creator of www.word-game-world.com.

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