Primary Inspiration: inference

Do you use riddles in your teaching? They're such an engaging teaching tool and they give you opportunities to introduce and practice so many important reading and thinking skills! Keep reading ⬇⬇ for some special info about free autumn riddle cards!

Once upon a time, as a fairly new teacher, I had my first graders prepare a riddle to tell the class on April Fools Day. That's what's known as a tactical error. :) One child would mistell the riddle way beyond the point of making sense, and 20 others would be convulsed in hysterical laughter. Again. And again. It was a verrrry long day. :)

No doubt about it, the little guys love riddles, and riddles actually do have a useful place in the curriculum. As children learn to connect the information in the clues and discard choices that don't fit across all the clues, they are determining key details. This foundational understanding will lead to making inferences and drawing conclusions.

Here's an autumn riddle set that will have your K-2 students determining key details in 24 riddles, applying their prior knowledge, and inferring the answers.

These riddles are a form of informational text, featuring autumn social studies and science vocabulary, like apples, Johnny Appleseed, Columbus, fire safety, pumpkins, leaves, autumn months, bats, Halloween, and Thanksgiving.

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Use the cards for whole class or small group lessons on key details and inference. They'll also make a good matching or pocket chart activity for a literacy center. There's a four-in-a-row game board for more practice with the same vocabulary, matching cards for memory games, and even a riddle writing activity included in this set!

Would you like to try some free autumn riddles and matching cards with your students? Click here or on the picture below to download this free resource from my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

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