Game 4: Common Bonds

Another game I enjoy using in the classroom is what I call Common Bonds, but it is really a form of the game TriBond. In this game three items are provided, and the player must determine what the three have in common.

For example, here are three items: a diner, a Superman comic, a Civil War assassination. What do they have in common? They all have a Booth; people sit in a boot at a diner, Superman changes in a phone booth in the comics, and John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln.

These little puzzles can be given as a sheet of puzzles, as a bonus question on a quiz, or as an entry activity when the kids walk in to the classroom. Regardless, it makes them think on another level.

I also use them as reviews for a test or as a test question. Here is one I made up for part of a mid-term: Tom Sawyer, Jay Gatsby, and Beau Baton. What do they have in common? All three were shot in their respective novels (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, and A Gathering of Old Men).

These are easy to create and the kids enjoy solving them.