Build vocabulary the fun way with these thought provoking riddles. These riddles will entertain your students as well as build their PSAT and ACT vocabulary. Decoding the riddles can be an impetus for incorporating dynamic words into students' lexicons and their writing.

To decode each riddle, students must identify the meaning of four vocabulary words in the riddle. A series of questions after each riddle prompts analysis of the vocabulary words using definitions, synonyms, antonyms, and parts of speech. The last activity asks students to synthesize the meaning of all four vocabulary words by choosing the sentence that explains the vocabulary riddle. To accomplish this, each of the sentence's four synonyms must be evaluated for its compatibility with the context of the riddle's four vocabulary words.

Students learn to focus on:

• Definitions of words
• Parts of speech
• Synonyms and antonyms