Hinky-Pinky

Hinky-Pinky is an old-time favorite word game that I played as a child. You can use it in your classroom to help your students practice syllable, rhyming word, and synonym skills. The object of the game is simple. Given a clue, students must guess the two word answer. The trick is that the answer contains two words that are equal in the number of syllables and rhyme. The title Hinky-Pinky implies the answers will contain two syllables. One syllable answers are called Hink-Pinks while three syllable answers are called Hinkety-Pinketies. For my older students, I mix the number of syllables without telliing them; for younger students you might want to identify the type of answer for which they are searching.

To make the game, I simply fashion flashcards from oaktag or heavy cardstock. On one side of the card I write the clue; on the other side I write the answer. I generally will print self-sticking labels using a database and label making program, and then affix the labels to the cards. I laminate the cards for durability.

Students can play this game individually, in a small group, or with the whole class.

CLUE	ANSWER
one who lives in basement	cellar dweller
ill young chicken	sick chick
sound slumber	deep sleep
bloody tale	gory story
cook who cannot hear	deaf chef
master of sailing ship	clipper skipper
seat for a rabbit	hare chair
loyal color	true blue
noisy mob of people	loud crowd
shining sun	bright light
clever prank	slick trick
clever detective	super snooper

These are just a few to get you started. Create some of your own, and once your students are familiar with the concept, let them develop their own Hinky-Pinkies.