Do you think you can complete a crossword that our Year 7s were able to complete by working together? Year 7 took at look at puns this month. A pun is a joke that plays with the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike (homophones) or look alike (homographs) but have different meanings. English is full of puns, because one word can have well over four hundred different meanings. Below are some examples of puns we looked at.
Bolt the gate before the horse decides to bolt like a bolt of lightning!
A lady brought some rulers to school in a stationery van, and I was sent to meet her.
The funeral pony had been coughing so much that he was a little hoarse.
The boy in the ghost costume had nobody to take him to the Halloween party.
The boxer had a celebratory glass of punch.
The students then had a go at a cryptic crossword, made up of wordplay relating to their names. Every answer is a Year 7 student’s first name, surname, or both, possibly anglicised. There are also three teachers to find. It was a bilingual crossword, so the number of possible puns was increased. Perhaps you might like to try. Just print it off and have a go. If you get stuck, you can ask your child for help.
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It can be printed off via this link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uwaDDwZ-PeA8XguDVlVW1rTZTDB1B8lfYIpYYA9zhUM/edit?usp=sharing
If you complete the crossword, you’re ready to spot some puns in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, just like Year 7 did. See if you can find them in this extracts below…
BENVOLIO: Where, underneath the grove of sycamore
So early walking did I see your son.
ROMEO: Give me a torch: I am not for this ambling;
Being but heavy, I will bear the light.
MERCUTIO: Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.
ROMEO: Not I, believe me: you have dancing shoes
With nimble soles: I have a soul of lead
So stakes me to the ground, I cannot move.
MERCUTIO: Consort? What dost thou make us minstrels?
An thou makes minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords.
Here’s my fiddlestick. Here’s that shall make you dance.
MERCUTIO: Ask for me tomorrow and you will find me a grave man.
MERCUTIO: Dreamers often lie.
ROMEO: Thy beauty hath made me effeminate
And in my temper soften’d valour’s steel!
TYBALT
What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?
If you can’t get them, ask your child for help again, and bask proudly in the glow of their bilingual brilliance. (Unless they get them all wrong; in which case, pretend this never hap-punned.)
Enjoy the crossword!