(22/09/25) Hangman: Animal Edition

Apparently, December is the month of gratitude, but I want to start sharing what I am grateful for now. Though, what I am grateful for is a bit of a medley that involves armadillos, enthusiastic animal name-callers, and the PJ Masks…

Let me explain. 😅

Today, I didn’t feel like doing a spelling test. Instead, I wanted to try a different way of reviewing vocabulary that would keep the class engaged. So, I landed on the infamous Hangman. Fun fact: when Hangman was first created, it was actually used in prisons to help illiterate prisoners learn how to spell and form words!

To add a little twist, I made the theme animals. Oblivious to the range of animals the TBR children knew, I set a list of ten words that I was sure would give them a bit of a challenge. That list included words like “elephant” and “bee!”

To add an even better twist, every team (there were three teams) was given a chance to guess immediately—before seeing any letters. That’s when chaos began.

I knew I had caught myself in a loop when TBR children started yelling words like “kangaroo,” “dinosaur,” “chimpanzee,” and even “hippopotamus” at the start of each round!

Every time I heard another word guessed, my heart would slightly shatter at the realisation that the word was smart enough to be used in the next round. To be honest, for some of the easier rounds I told them not to guess because I was scared the round would end embarrassingly quickly…

But as the TBR students became more eager for more rounds, I knew I had to step up my animal game. I pulled out some tricky ones like “dragon,” “seahorse,” and—to my surprise—“eel.” TBR also got stuck on the proper pronunciation of “panther” and “rhinoceros,” which led to unexpected but very funny pronunciation lessons.

But what truly defeated them?

A small, leathery-shelled, nocturnal creature known as the armadillo. Fun fact: the only reason I knew this animal existed was because of the popular cartoon PJ Masks years ago.

So, what should I say I am grateful for… Adam (for naming the animals)? Hangman? Memory? You know what? I think it’s a mixture of all of that and more. I can’t wait for next week to see what new medley of gratitude I’ll have by then.

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🌟 Thanks for reading! Scroll down to enjoy pictures and videos from today. 🌟

And stay tuned for a possible showcase of TBR readers’ stories next week. Expect humour, interesting characters, surprising plots, and maybe even some beautiful illustrations.

Leave a like on this post and comment some tricky animal names I should use for the next round of Hangman: Animal Edition. I’m already thinking of platypus and… barracuda!