I thought I would post about something light, but fun, today.  Recently, in Parade Magazine, there has been a new feature by Ken Jennings, the Jeopardy champion.  It’s a puzzle called “Kennections“, and it is pretty challenging.  “Kennections” gives you 5 trivia questions.  To solve the puzzle, you must answer the trivia questions and figure out what the answers all have in common.  If you don’t receive Parade Magazine, you can go to “Kennections” online for the latest puzzle, as well as the archives.

The puzzles are probably too hard for elementary students, but older kids might enjoy doing some research to find the solutions.  Another fun idea is to have kids create their own puzzles using this framework.  The “Kennections” site is asking for people to submit their own, but it does require an e-mail address.  I think it would be fun just to do within the classroom, or to exchange puzzles with pen pals or e-pals.  This would be a great challenge, particularly for the higher level students in your class.