Exercise the brain!! For Kids and Adults

Usually August is considered the 'dog days' of summer because its really hot. Children and youth, and parents dealing with youth on summer break, start getting bored or frustrated while waiting for it to be back to school time. Where I live the month of July was definately the hottest of the summer, it has turned out to be the hottest July on record for this state! Weeks of scorching hot weather and a drought to add to it. Some parts of the country are now starting back to school, some have a week or two to wait yet. Here are some brain awakening exercises to get your students ready for back to school, or for you to fill an 'I feel bored today' day with, or for anyone wanting a few interesting activities for sharpening their brainpower.

ROYGBV is an abbreviation or acronym that uses the first letter of each color for the colors of the rainbow, in the order that they appear when you see an actual rainbow. (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet.) Fun writing ideas: On Monday write five sentences using the color red. On Tuesday write five sentences using the color orange. On Wednesday- write five sentences using the color yellow. On Thursday- use the color green. On Friday use the color blue. On Saturday use the color violet (after you do your Saturday chores, of course.)

You can make drawings of your sentences, too. If you are a little kid just make drawings of things using the colors. Examples of sentences using color words:

A smile appeared on my face when I saw the red of the cherry on top of the banana split.

Maybe if Red Riding Hood had worn a different colored cloak, she would have escaped the big bad wolf.

Yellow and black checkered taxi cabs could be seen everywhere in New York City.

Don’t eat yellow snow! 

 

 

Green smudges decorated several of the preschoolers' foreheads after the finger-painting activity.

 The frog peeked its head out of the green blanket of duck weed that covered the surface of the pond. 

 

 

Unscramblers

Unscramble these letters and find the names of three things that you can take with you everywhere:  (Find answers at the bottom of this page for these activities.)

 

1. E A G L E R E M Y  

 

 

2. What is unique about this sentence?

  The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.  

 

 

3. Unscramble the five words below so that all five words rhyme:

 

              OOT, OHSE, WREG, ELBU, RKNAAOGO  

 

4. There are four types of trees hiding in the sentence below!

 The cloak and cap pleased my pal Mel mildly.

          (Each one reads from left to right, across one or more words. Can you spot them?)

 

Secret codes

Here are some examples:

 

Backwards alphabet code: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

 What the letters mean:      Z X Y WVU T  S RQP O N M L K J  I  H GF  E  D CB A

 

 

Write your name using this code:

 

Reverse code: Reverse the Words .........

This is a simple code to solve – just read the words backwards!

Try writing a message of your own.

 

 

 

Fun with poetry:

 Write your name vertically then using the letters of your name as the first letter, choose words that describe you and make a poem about yourself. Here is an example of a poem for a girl named Clara.....if your name happens to be Clara, you will have to think of new one...

 C ute

L ikes to laugh

A ble to draw dragons

R eady to snarf  pizza

A rtist in training

 

Answer page...don't peek until after you have tried to solve the riddles!!!!

 

 

 1. E A G L E R E M Y    

(eye, arm, leg)

2.  What is unusual about this sentence? The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.   (This sentence contains all 26 letters of the alphabet at least once.)

 

         3. OOT, OHSE, WREG, ELBU, RKNAAOGO  (too, shoe, grew, blue, kangaroo)

 

4. Four trees: (oak, apple, palm, elm)