A collection of word-association game questions that will excite elementary school students! Fun quizzes that also serve as brain teasers.

fireworks

If you’re thinking of something held at night that uses gunpowder to create sparks and smoke, the answer is fireworks. It’s said to have started with launches during the Obon season to calm the spirits of ancestors. Okuribi bonfires and Shōryō-nagashi are also part of the Obon period, aren’t they? Fireworks are often seen at summer festivals, but in recent years displays have been held nationwide in every season. Winter fireworks have their own special charm, too.

randoseru (Japanese elementary school backpack)

The answer to this quiz is “randoseru.” A randoseru is a sturdy, box-shaped bag used by Japanese elementary school students when they go to school. It is worn on the back, and it’s a school item used to carry learning materials such as textbooks and notebooks. Connecting these characteristics leads you to think of a randoseru.

graduation ceremony

The keywords March, cherry blossoms, chorus, and farewell are often seen in school graduation ceremonies. At graduation, everyone sings together and bids a heartfelt goodbye. I wonder if the principal’s generation sings Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi’s “Kanpai”? The graduation song is the last song everyone practices together—just thinking about it brings me to tears. What kind of song is sung at your school?

baseball

Baseball is a sport played with a ball on a field by teams of nine players. In Japan, it is famous for the Spring and Summer National High School Baseball Championships held at Koshien Stadium. Masaoka Shiki, renowned as a haiku poet, was also one who became captivated by baseball. It is said that he was the one who coined Japanese equivalents for baseball-related loanwords, such as “dasher” for batter and “sousha” for runner.

piano

A piano is an instrument with rows of white and black keys that you play with your fingers to produce sound. You often see them in music rooms, right? I think many schools also have one in the gym for various events. In fact, the “piano” we usually say is an abbreviation; its full name is “clavicembalo col piano e forte.” Because it’s too long, we normally call it a piano. The meaning is something like “a harpsichord with soft and loud (dynamics).”

soap bubble

Soap bubbles are the round bubbles you can make by blowing air through a straw or the like into soapy water. It’s said they were introduced from Portugal around the late 16th century. I wonder if Oda Nobunaga ever played by blowing through a straw, too. You’ve probably tried it at least once yourself. In fact, in the world of haiku, soap bubbles are considered a seasonal word for spring. It’s curious that something you can play with anytime should have a season, isn’t it?

ghost

From keywords like night, grave, and “having no feet,” along with the hint of a ghost story, the word that comes to mind is “ghost.” Ghosts are said to often appear at night, are closely associated with graves, and frequently show up in ghost stories. Also, since they are often depicted without feet, we can conclude that the answer is a ghost.