Word Play with Hink Pinks

Posted by Jimmie | 0 comments

Is language arts getting a little dull? Add some hink pinks for seriously silly word fun.

Hink pinks are riddles whose answer is two rhyming words.

Here’s an example:

Q. What is a wide stick?
A.  a broad rod

And another:

Q.  What do you call a cushioned balcony?
A.  a soft loft

If the answer is two syllables, then the riddle is called a hinkey pinkey.

Q.  What is a frightening fruit?
A.  a  scary berry

Three syllables are hinkety pinketies.

Can you imagine some fun language arts lessons with these? The best part is that while you’re teaching vocabulary, parts of speech, rhyming words, and syllables, no one even notices because the riddles are so much silly, mind-bending fun. For more printable hink pink puzzles to solve, look at this list. The best fun, of course, is in creating your own hink pinks. Here’s how to do it.

Step One
Start with your answer. Choose two rhyming words that fit together. Choosing ridiculous combinations makes it more fun. This is where you can use a rhyming dictionary if you like.

Step Two
Make your riddle. Reword your rhyme by using synonyms. This is where a thesaurus can come in handy.

Optional
Illustrate your hink pinks with silly pictures like my scary berry.

Step Three
Find someone to quiz. Ask your riddle (the part that doesn’t rhyme). See if your partner can solve the set of rhyming words.  If he can’t, show him the illustration as a hint.

Here is a worksheet I made to walk you through these steps for making hink pinks.  Try it out this week and then leave a comment with the best hink pinks you and your children created.

Jimmie is a former public school teacher turned homeschooling stay-at-home-mom. A sense of humor, faith, and creativity keep her “pressing on” in her unique situation — living and traveling abroad with an only child in a bilingual environment. Visit her blog at Jimmie’s Collage.