PUZZLES
A riddle has been defined since the time of Aristotle, who called it a well-crafted metaphor. V.I. Dal wrote that a riddle is “an allegory or hints, roundabout speech, circumlocution, a brief allegorical description of an object proposed for the solution.” The most precise definition of a riddle belongs to V.P. Anikin: “A riddle is a poetic, intricate description of an object or phenomenon, made with the aim of testing a person’s intelligence, as well as with the aim of instilling in him a poetic view of reality.”
A riddle consists of two parts: a riddle (question) and a riddle (answer), which are interconnected. In a riddle, the answer is “encrypted” in one way or another. This could be a metaphor or other allegory - it is no coincidence that people put together a riddle about a riddle: Without a face in the guise.
The origins of riddles go back to the secret speech of primitive society - riddles are common among all peoples who are delayed in their historical development. The hostile force had to be outwitted in order to ensure the well-being of oneself and one’s family. In initiation rites, the initiate was tested with the help of riddles - without knowledge of the secret speech, the young man could not become a man. Riddles are found in the mythology of ancient peoples (for example, in ancient Greek myths). Russian riddles by origin are also associated with conventional speech - the encrypted language of hunters, with rituals and magical actions aimed at ensuring the harvest and success in cattle breeding and agriculture.
As researchers have already indicated, the famous Russian traveler of the 18th century. S.P. Krasheninnikov noted the remains of an ancient secret speech among Russian sable hunters. The artel elected a “forward leader,” he appointed assistants and ordered them, among other things, “so that, according to the custom of their ancestors, a raven, a snake and a cat should not be called by their direct names, but should be called horseback, skinny And baked» . Further Krasheninnikov wrote: “Industry people say that in previous years many more things were called with strange names, for example: church - top-heavy, babu - husk or whitehead, girl - a simpleton, horse - long-tailed, cow - roaring, sheep - thin-legged, pig - low-looking, rooster - barefoot and so on...” Krasheninnikov noted that all these words, except for the replacement raven, snake and cat, were left, that is, they were not used.
Among Russians, echoes of the riddles of the ancient period have been preserved in epics, fairy tales, and songs (for example, many underwater songs have the form of riddles: they do not describe the fate of a person, but replace it with a description of an object or action).
Over time, the ancient function of riddles gradually faded away, but their poetic form remained. She turned out to be productive. They began to treat the riddle as a way of testing intelligence, and they began to create new riddles about objects and phenomena. A folklore genre emerged that had no other purposes other than artistic and entertainment.
D. N. Sadovnikov, in the preface to his collection of riddles, pointed out the main difference between proverbs and riddles. “The former,” he wrote, “reflected the people’s views on nature and the environment, while the latter reflected all the worldly wisdom and moral personality of the common people. In a riddle, more ancient in form and origin, full scope was opened for the creative imagination of the people; in the proverb - for his common sense and criticism."
Riddles contributed to the activation of knowledge of the surrounding world and formed skills logical thinking, developed observation skills. They were a means of entertainment and quietly educated. Throughout the history of riddles, their educational function has been preserved.
A riddle is an expression or image that needs to be solved. Riddles are extremely useful not only for children, but also for adults, as they force the brain to “move”, use logic, and sometimes even imagination. For self-development, you can solve various types of riddles.
Types of riddles
- A riddle in the form of an image. For example, this could be a puzzle with pictures, where by certain addition and subtraction of letters from the words they represent, you can solve an encrypted word or expression. Such riddles are often asked to younger schoolchildren.
- Logic riddles can be simpler and have a trick. To solve them, you need to either build a logical chain or apply a non-standard solution. An example of such a riddle: “Which hand should you stir the tea with?” A person with direct logical thinking will answer that it is right if he is right-handed, or left if he is left-handed. The correct answer generally lies in a different area and sounds like this: “It’s better to do it with a spoon.”
- There are verbal rhyming riddles and poems. Usually they are read aloud by one person, and everyone else adds the missing guess word in unison, which creates a rhyme.
- Exist folk riddles who are already of considerable age. They may differ in folk and outdated vocabulary, but they are very popular in folklore classes. For example, a riddle about a rainbow: “A painted rocker hung over the river.”
- There are also author's riddles - the opposite of folk ones. Such riddles are distinguished by individuality, since they are composed by an individual person. Examples of such riddles include questions from viewers to experts on the TV show “What? Where? When?”
If you want to get a detailed explanation of the riddle in a general sense, then you may be interested in the article
A and B sat on the pipe
(Author's title: What riddles are there?)
Guessing riddles is a fun and interesting process that brings pleasure to both children and adults; it provides rich opportunities for the development of speech, attention, thinking and imagination of a child. Before you start asking your child riddles, it is useful to know what they are. And there are different riddles! You also need to select riddles according to the degree of difficulty depending on the child’s age and level individual development.
Descriptive riddles
We suggest starting with descriptive riddles, to which even the smallest ones can find answers: list important features And characteristic details object, phenomenon or living being in question. Descriptive riddles can be simplified or complicated by giving shorter or more detailed versions of the descriptions. Since it is always desirable to stay ahead of the child’s current level of development (what he already knows and can do at the moment), we advise you to first ask a more complex (short) version of the descriptive riddle, and, of course, give time to think. But if you see that it is still difficult for the child, you can think of an easier (expanded) option. For example:
This animal is the largest on our planet. Who is this? (elephant)
He is big and kind. It has large ears, a short tail and a long trunk. Who is this? (elephant)
They say about him “the king of beasts.” Who is this? (a lion)
He's a predator. Lives in Africa. He has a thick mane. Who is this? (a lion)
It is made of metal. It is controlled using a steering wheel. What is this? (car)
She has four wheels. She drives down the road and honks: BEEP! What is this? (car)
Rhyming riddles
Some riddle-poems ask you to name the last word in the line as the answer. The coincidence of the rhyme with the word of the previous line is an additional hint when guessing. The rhyme will tell you the answer and help the child feel successful and believe in their abilities. Such activities are accessible to the little ones and kids really love such riddles. Rhymed ones can be very short - only two lines, or longer. For example:
Quickly hides from fear
The shell is hard... (turtle)
Woke up early this morning
And makes faces... (monkey)
What a huge mouth!
Opened his mouth... (hippopotamus)
Tail like a fan, proud look,
Not clothes, but an outfit.
Let them envy those around:
The bird is important... (turkey)
Cunning cheat
red head,
The fluffy tail is beautiful!
And her name is... (fox)
If paws instead of hands,
If the most faithful friend,
If a bully
So friend... (dog)
Trick riddles
Trick riddles also offer a rhyming word as an answer, but this hint is the opposite - confusion, the wrong word. Guessing such riddles requires attentiveness and concentration from the child: the child must not succumb to the deceptive hint and not allow himself to be confused, give the correct answer that is not in tune with the poem. At the same time, this is a very fun activity, especially if you play in a group of children and offer sets of pictures that contain both suitable and inappropriate images to choose the correct answer. For example:
On the fence in the morning
Crowed... (not a kangaroo, but a rooster)
Who likes to run around on branches?
Of course, red... (not a fox, but a squirrel)
Daughters and sons
Teaches you to grunt... (not a nightingale, but a pig)
In the thicket I raised my head,
Howls from hunger... (not a boa constrictor, but a wolf)
Riddles-poems
Poetic riddles come in different levels of difficulty. In more simple riddles the meaning is quite transparent, built on the child’s existing knowledge about the world around him, his practical experience, and described in simple words understandable to preschoolers. For example:
Slipping away like something alive
But I won't let him out.
Foams with white foam,
Don't be lazy about washing your hands.
(soap)
I was not raised -
Made from snow.
Instead of a nose cleverly
Inserted a carrot.
Eyes are coals,
Hands are bitches.
Cold, big,
Who am I?
(snow woman)
In summer he walks without a road
Near the pines and birches,
And in winter he sleeps in a den,
Hides your nose from the frost.
(bear)
Figurative riddles
In more complex poetic riddles, the meaning is presented figuratively, it is veiled. To solve such riddles you need to have a large vocabulary, a high level of thinking and imagination. Please note that children like to solve such riddles only if they are already familiar with them, and have difficulty solving new riddles. Poetic riddles with hidden meanings are too complex for children, we recommend offering them to middle and older children preschool age. If it is difficult for a child to guess such riddles, use different types hints: offer several pictures, one of which is a guess; tell me the first letter in the word - for example, “The guess word starts with the letter K”; give additional information - indicate the characteristic features and properties of the object. Take the time to discuss your child’s answers, ask him to explain their content, and draw his attention to the fact that some riddles may have several possible answers. Teach your child to listen carefully and analyze information, pay attention to details, and in the future he will cope well with such difficult riddles without your help. Examples of riddles:
No arms, no legs,
And he opens the gate.
(wind)
Four brothers
They are under one roof.
(table)
The red maiden sits in prison,
And the braid is on the street.
(carrot)
Homemade riddles
These are riddles that the child himself comes up with and asks. It is imperative to teach your child not only to solve riddles, but also to come up with descriptive riddles on his own. At first, this presents significant difficulties for the child. For example, trying to make a riddle about a ball, a child says: “The ball is round and blue. What is this?" But a little practice and success is guaranteed! First, help your child: come up with the beginning of descriptive sentences, and let him finish and ask the question “Who is this?” or “What is this?” You can make and guess homemade riddles at home, while walking, and in public transport. Thanks to this game, your child will learn to analyze information and identify important properties and details in surrounding objects and phenomena. Remember: it is the child’s asking riddles that makes it possible to make a breakthrough. new level development of thinking! Here are examples of writing descriptive riddles with the help of an adult and using real objects and toys, or pictures:
The toy is a red ball.
Its shape is... (round). In color it is... (red). You can play with it like this... (roll, throw, hit the floor and wall). What is this?
The picture is a thunderstorm.
It is dark outside). A strong... (wind) rose, flashed... (lightning), rumbled... (thunder). So it started... What? (storm)
The picture is a zebra.
She lives in... (Africa). She knows how... (jump). She is all white and black... (stripes). Who is this?
Selecting riddles of different difficulty levels, Special attention pay attention to illustrations for them. Remember that the presence of pictures of riddles in front of a child’s eyes is a serious clue. And perceiving a riddle only by ear is much more difficult task for the child's thinking.
So, you can play with riddles not only using ready-made books and manuals. Offering the child interesting game in riddles and answers, you can choose riddles and illustrations for them yourself, and also come up with new riddles with your child - descriptive or short poetic ones with simple rhymes. Develop your child's thinking and imagination with pleasure!
Stella Pletneva
Mystery. Types of riddles and their role in intellectual development preschooler
Introduction of new technologies in training preschoolers dictated by a change in the modern pedagogical situation, characterized by the humanization of the pedagogical process, an appeal to the child’s personality, a departure from information-prescription teaching based on repetition, imitation and listening, during which the child largely loses his innate investigative behavior, the ability to think independently is lost, independently learn the world. Even Piaget constantly emphasized that often, by teaching children specific skills, we deprive them of the chance to make their own discovery.
The main task facing modern teachers is to educate a creative personality, and creativity does not come just like that, creativity must be learned. V. A. Sukhomlinsky urged not to miss that happy period: “...to reach in every person the vein from which unique talent begins.” And here, as one of effective means development mental activity and speech of the child appears mystery.
Initially, mystery fulfilled cult purposes, being the disclosure of religious secrets or one of the forms of transmission of religious ideas and myths. Primitive man, who resorted to a special allegorical form of speech, was convinced that he was hiding preparations for hunting, without naming his tools, animals, and intentions.
According to primitive man, nature is animate, intelligent and hostile. Therefore, it can and should be appeased, deceived, outwitted. And in order to outwit the river, forest, animals, fire, rain and the Sun, you need secret, conditional speech, which will not be understood by nature.
IN modern world, mystery almost stopped playing cult, mystical, social role. However, artistic and cultural, educational and entertainment functions remain. Riddles are fun, are used in children's games for educational purposes and are included in teaching aids.
Puzzles deeply penetrated not only folklore, but also world literature, and became an integral part of the culture of the peoples of the world. Many books and dissertations have been written on this topic; we will limit ourselves to a short list of striking examples from the treasury of world literature.
1. Straight puzzles, in which, with the help of allegories, direct and indirect features, it is described mysterious object or phenomenon. They can be either colloquial or poetic.
Spoken form:
What's happened: doesn’t bark, doesn’t bite, but doesn’t let you into the house? (lock.)
Certainly, mystery may be more complex For example: An obedient slave and at the same time the master himself. Closest to everyone in the world, and at the same time unattainable. Who is this? (Your reflection).
Not necessarily in there is only one item in the riddle. Maybe four completely different: It burns without fire, flies without wings, runs without legs, hurts without wounds. (Sun, cloud, river, heart).
Folk puzzles:
Father has a stallion that the whole world can’t hold back,
Mother has boxes that the whole world can’t lift,
My brother has a sash that the whole world can’t roll up. (Wind, earth, road).
Poetic form:
It grew, it grew,
It crawled out of the bush,
It rolled through my hands,
It ended up in my teeth. (Nuts.).
2. Puzzles- deceptions differ in that they imply one solution, but in fact, behind a play on words or another deceptive device, lies a completely different one.
Example of a nursery trick riddles:
Who's chewing a pine cone on a branch?
Well, of course it is.
Bear Squirrel *
Examples of decoys:
Ivan had 10 sheep. All but 9 died. How many sheep are left? (Nine, because one died).
3. Puzzles figurative thinking is usually solved if we consider the question not literally, but figuratively or broadly. Include factors in the decision that may be implied by ambiguous interpretation of the question or the words used in it. Examples: Three tractor drivers have a brother, Sergei, but Sergei has no brothers. Could this be possible? (Yes, if the tractor drivers are women).
What word always sounds wrong? (The word "wrong").
What can you cook but can't eat? (Lessons).
4. Mathematical - solved using calculations, but often involve the use of both figurative and logical thinking. And sometimes it’s pure mathematics, but framed in figurative folk speech. For example, a beautiful Russian mystery:
A flock of geese was flying, and one goose met them. “Hello,” he says, “a hundred geese!” - No, we are not a hundred geese. If there were still that many, and half as much, and a quarter as much, and you, goose, would there be a hundred of us geese? How many geese were flying? Answer: (36 geese. Because if you add the same amount to 36 (36, half as much (18, a quarter as much (9) and one more (1, will be exactly 100).
5. Plot - there is a special category of plot riddles, in which the plot plays the main role role, being both a background and a set of conditions puzzles- this is a famous game "Danetki", which allows a group of participants to investigate a complex and mysterious situation by asking the host questions that can only be answered "Yes" or "No". Example: There is a garage. It's completely empty. Only in the middle of the ceiling hangs a hook. A man hanged himself on a hook. There's nothing else in the garage. How could he hang himself?
Gradually, the players learn that the garage is located in the desert, and that a man arrived in a refrigerator, brought with him an ice cube, placed it under a hook, climbed onto it, and, when the cube melted, naturally found himself hanged.
There can be any number of similar stories; You can easily come up with your own and play it with friends or online.
6. Logical - solved by checking the truth of each judgment separately and various combinations of judgments. Also, they can always be solved using logical equations. Logical example puzzles: Anya, Vika, Sasha and Dima are participating in the Olympiad. Fans expressed the following offers:
Sasha will be the first, Anya will be the last,
Sasha will be second, Dima will be third,
Anya will be second, Dima will be fourth.
It turned out that in each sentence one is true, the other is false. What place did each student take? (Sasha 1, Vika 4, Anya 2, Dima 3).
7. Humorous - usually not guessed, but have the character of an anecdote, simply expressed in the form riddle or question: What is this? green, white, square and flies? (Square white and green watermelon)
8. Optical illusions most often they are not riddles. Usually these are just pictures demonstrating certain properties of optical illusion.
Charades, anagrams, puzzles. There are many types riddles using philological techniques. Usually, their essence comes down to isolating syllables or letters from words, and using correctly isolated syllables or letters to create new words.
Puzzles They teach children the ability to observe, noticing something special, the ability to see the essence of an object, its purpose. Mystery always contains a question that requires mental activity, concentration, imagination, and of course gives the child new knowledge about the world around him. This is knowledge about new objects, about nature and its phenomena, about animals and their habits, about relationships between people. Riddles in concentrated, symbolic form accessible to children, reflect children's experience of knowing reality.
Of particular importance is riddle for preschooler speech development. It is intensive in preschool age assimilation native language, which consists in the assimilation of his entire morphological system, associated with the child’s extreme activity in relation to language, expressed, in particular, in diverse word formations and word changes made by the child by analogy with already acquired forms. K.I. Chukovsky emphasized that it is precisely the period from two to five years that a child has an extraordinary sense of language, which leads to its active assimilation.
Guessing and inventing riddles has an impact on a variety of children's speech development. Use to create in riddle metaphorical image, use various means expressiveness (reception of personification, various definitions, epithets, comparisons, special rhythmic organization) contribute to the formation of figurative speech in children preschool age. Puzzles enrich children's vocabulary due to the polysemy of words, help to see the secondary meanings of words, form ideas about figurative meaning words. They help to master the sound and grammatical structure of Russian speech, forcing you to focus on the linguistic form and analyze it.
Mystery, stimulating the child’s mental activity, always puts him on the path to solving a certain problem. Solving develops riddles the ability to analyze, generalize, forms the ability to independently draw conclusions and conclusions. Mystery teaches to clearly identify the most characteristic, expressive features of an object or phenomenon, to clearly and concisely convey images of objects, develops Children have a poetic view of reality.
Yu. G. Illarionova believes that the use riddles helps in working with children development They have evidentiary and descriptive language skills. To be able to prove is not only to be able to think correctly, logically, but also to correctly express one’s thought, putting it in precise verbal form. Speech - proof requires special speech patterns, grammatical structures, and special composition that are different from description and narration.
To cause children interest and the need for proof, Yu. G. Illarionova recommends when guessing riddles give the child a specific target: not easy to guess riddle, but to prove that the answer is correct. It is necessary to teach children to perceive objects and phenomena of the world around them in the fullness and depth of connections and relationships. Introduce in advance the objects and phenomena that will be discussed puzzles. Then the evidence will be more valid and complete.
Systematic work on development children have evidential speech skills when explaining riddles, develops ability to operate with a variety of interesting reasons for better justification guesses. In order for children to quickly master the descriptive form of speech, it is necessary to draw their attention to linguistic features puzzles, teach to notice beauty and originality artistic image, understand what speech means it is created by, develop a taste for precise and figurative words. Considering the material puzzles, it is necessary to teach children to see compositional features puzzles, feel the originality of its rhythms and syntactic structures.
For these purposes, language analysis is carried out puzzles, attention is drawn to its construction. It is recommended to have several in stock riddles about one subject, a phenomenon to show children that the images and expressions they found are not isolated, that there are many opportunities to say differently and very succinctly and colorfully about the same thing. Mastering descriptive speech skills is more successful if, along with riddles taken as samples literary works, illustrations, paintings.
The role of riddles is great. They have a great influence on children's speech development, for enrichment vocabulary, on development imagination and thinking of children, to enrich their ideas about the world around them, to cultivate aesthetic feelings, to overall child development.
Depending on the described phenomena or characteristics of the object, the main types of riddles. For example, there are tasks where a description of a phenomenon or object is given by listing its various features; these are most often the tasks for the little ones.
It is juicy and fragrant.
It's golden on the outside
There are a lot of slices in it, friends,
We'll all eat it, too. (Answer - Orange)
Grows in a clay bowl by the window
Headless green hedgehog
Yes, without legs. (Answer - Cactus)
The caftan I’m wearing is green, my heart is like red.
I taste sweet like sugar, but I resemble a ball. (Answer - Watermelon)
For example, let's look at the last one; it contains three features of the clue word: taste, shape, color. To find a solution, you need to conduct an elementary analysis, highlight all the features, and combine them into a single one (synthesis).
The second type of puzzle includes a description with brief description phenomenon or object, thus, based on several signs, you can restore a holistic image. Here are some simple examples:
The whole world is covered by a blue sheet (Sky)
The whole world is warmed by one fire (Sun)
They can be easily solved if you select the marked characteristic and associate it with others that are not indicated; for this you need to use associations.
Riddles with negative comparisons are popular. You can easily compose these yourself; for example, we suggest you consider these options:
And not a beast, but not a bird either
Nose is the same as a tit (Mosquito)
There's a horse walking in the field, but not
It flies in the wild, but not a bird (Wind)
Not a watchman, but he will wake everyone up,
Not a rider, but with spurs (Rooster)
Although not a turtle, it has a shell
Although not a bird, he lives on a branch (Nut)
Runs, but not a horse
There is noise, but not the forest (River)
Such puzzles for children must be solved by contradiction. The guesser needs to alternately compare different but similar objects or phenomena, and then group them in a new way.
Older children are interested in problems with metaphors:
He waved his sleeve and bent down the trees. (Answer - Wind)
To give an answer, you first need to decipher the metaphor, so you need to compare and contrast objects from different, often very distant areas, you need to see the similarities in them.
One more thing can be highlighted type of riddle: riddles questions, it is in them that descriptions of features are most often used or metaphors are used.
In adult companies, you can most often find joke problems. There are also ones called “folds”, most often they are used at matinees in gardens and primary school. They are easy to solve, because the answer suggests itself in rhyme.
You can list them as charades, metagrams, anagrams, loggriffs, and there are also those where to get the answer you just need to rearrange the emphasis, but first guess what is being said.
Adolescents and adults like them; they are presented as real problems, to solve which you need to operate with several descriptions at once. During additional Russian language lessons, schoolchildren can be asked phonetic questions. For example: which musical instrument came first? Gusli or balalaika? The answer has a stressed syllable on the third. The same may be riddles about sports.
