JCPL Teens

Picture your house.  Draw a mental map of all the rooms.  Now try to rearrange the rooms so that your house is completely different.

Think about how many windows there are in your house.  How many doors?  How many chairs?  Closets?

Recite tongue-twisters.  Try this one: How much wood would a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?  A wood chuck would chuck as much wood as a wood chuck could if a wood chuck could chuck wood.

Read a magazine article and try to work three facts you have learned into your conversation that day.

Think up a new ending for your favorite book or movie.

Write down a word that has more than 16 letters and see how many smaller words you can make from it.

Memorize a poem.  (Use Literature Resources from Gale for ideas.)  Practice reciting the poem in an emotional and entertaining way.  Perform it for your friends and family.

Make a copy of a crossword puzzle.  Work on one copy of it and time yourself.  When you're done, try to fill in the second copy in half the time.

Read a computer instruction manual and teach yourself to do something new without the computer in front of you.  (Search the library catalog for the name of your computer's operating system or program.)

List five statements that support something you really believe in, like freedom of speech.  Now come up with five arguments against the thing you believe in.  (Use the Opposing Viewpoints if you need ideas.)

Taken from The Book of Lists for Teens by Sandra and Harry Choron