THE BRAIN RUMMAGER
A HUGE RANGE OF ACTIVITIES IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE, CREATIVITY, WRITING, THINKING & GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
DETAILED MENU
FRACTAL THINKING
Journey to Infinity An amazing section to get you thinking very creatively
FOUR INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITIES
The teeth in my bottom are false Fun activities with words about teeth
A dramatic pea Fun activity with with letters missing from words
The ET Hamburger A mysterious photo. Can it be...?
Jumble Sixes Word guessing game
WORD QUIZZES AND PUZZLES
WordPower: Three more word quizzes
Five quizzes about the origins and meanings of words:
More Quizzes Three of a kind: Clothing, food, words with 'elp', oddments
Six more puzzles Misfits, Odd One Out, Middle Meddles
PLAYING WITH ANAGRAMS
76 anagram puzzles An introduction to Anagrams
BraInbender 1: Sequential anagrams
Brainbender 7: Sequential anagrams
PICK A WORD THAT ISN'T A REAL WORD
SEVEN BRAINBENDER WORD PUZZLES
Seven Brainbenders Menu for the next 7 items
Brianbender 1: 1 to 5 makes 8 (anagram puzzle)
Brainbender 2: Pieces of 4
Brainbender 3: A + B = C
Brainbender 4: Words from the letters of 'TRADITIONAL'
Brainbender 5: 4 Bull's eyes
Brainbender 6: Words from the letters of 'REALISATION'
Brainbender 7 7–3 Take-aways (anagram puzzle)
CROSSWORD PUZZLES
Brainbender 6: 3 crossword puzzles based on 'REALISATION'
TWO LARGE WORD PUZZLES
The Great Big Enormous Word Feast Find 50 words from 9 letters
The Great Big Enormous Word Feast Another Find 50 words from 9 letters
FOUR WORD PUZZLES FOR RUMMAGERS
All sorts of puzzles for rummagers Menu for the next 4 items
All sorts 1: Books
All sorts 2: Castles and knights
All sorts 3: Mythical creatures
All sorts 4: Things
WRITING WITH A REVERSE ACRONYM
Name your Nonsense Write a story where all the words start with the letters of a name.
CREATIVE SEEING — INTERPRET AND EXPLAIN
The ET Hamburger Jet plans pursue a huge flying...?
What on Earth is this Thing? Describe in words this very weird visitor
Another Thing A strange creature, a long time ago.
Two mystery photos Ordinary everyday, but very close up, what?
Four peculiar pictures Menu for the next four very strange drawings
Peculiar picture 1 The overhang
Peculiar Picture 2 Auntie Griselda
Peculiar Picture 3 Close encounter of a mouse kind
Peculiar Picture 4 Which way in, which way out? Optical illusion.
Exercise your creative mind Photos for creative writing, from Facts about Fiction 8
PATTERNS FROM THE MANDELBROT FRACTAL TO INSPIRE CREATIVE THINKING
The amazing Mandelbrot fractal Introduction and explanation
See also Journey to Infinity: Fractal thinking here
A MINI-COURSE IN CREATIVE WRITING
5: Clear and consistent expression
6: Where do stories come from?
8: Exercise your creative mind
BE AN EDITOR
Check this passage!
MORE ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING
Lines of thought How different people think about the same thing
A cat is a table Logic and generalisation
Free flowing streams Stream of consciousness and association of ideas
Pictures and word flow Using your imagination with a photograph
Skeleton stories Building a story from basic simple ideas
Words, thesauruses and logic Finding the most appropriate word in a thesaurus.
Words, feelings and expression Making it more interesting...
Purple prose ...But don't overdo the use of adjectives and adverbs!
Listen to the silence Write about the people you can't see in this painting
MORE ADVANCED GUIDANCE AND REFERENCE PAGES
Where do I put the apostrophe?
150 Words with Multiple Meanings (Homonyms)
120 Pairs of words that sound the same (Homophones)
100 foreign words in English explained
A quick guide to some elements of writing style
How to spell words containing ie or ei
Plural of foreign words in English
Figures of speech Metaphor, simile, allegory, idiom
Rules for writer's Can you spot these common mistakes in writing?
-ologies to feed your brain 100 words ending in -ology
About some -nyms Acronyms, eponyms and homonyms. Explanation and examples.
Unusual pairs Words containing aa ii hh kk uu vv ww
THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD...AND CREATIVE THINKING
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World Introduction
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
TEAM THINKING — THREE PROBLEMS WITH CHALLENGES
Team Thinking: The Wicked Ways of Wandering Wheelie Bins
Team Thinking: Keep out of reach of children!
Team Thinking: Selling books in Bytomania
WORDS IN HISTORY, HISTORY IN WORDS
Only one rhinoceros: Will's wide word web William Shakespeare's amazing vocabulary. With questions.
Why does s look like f in old books? That funny old letter that confuses modern readers
The First Folio of Shakespeare What the first official edition looked like
Potions and spells Extracts from a book published in 1660
How to make oyntments Pictures of an actual handwritten recipe about 350 years old
Words for food and drink Fascinating facts, and a list of food words over the last 1,100 years
Stories behind 20 food words A bit of etymology
DRAGONS AND OTHER UNPEOPLE
Here be dragons Quotations from Beowulf, Layamon's Brüt, The Saxon Chronicle, The Bible, The Bestiary
Words of the Unpeople A comprehensive list of 150 words for the beings beyond the dark
Beware of these horrors All about five of the beings who dwell beyond the dark!
WORDS FROM THE ANCIENT PAST & ECHOES OF THE ANCIENT GODS
PROVERBS AND SAYINGS
100 Sayings Everyday sayings and where they come from
A BIT OF NONSENSE
Alas, poor Charlotte Some rather silly verses, just for fun
FOR TEACHERS — REPRINTS OF SOME PUBLISHED PAPERS
Last edited on 27-Nov-2010