Don’t you miss summer already? Let’s go back in time for a moment, back to Puzzle Summer
Camp. Jenny sits at a picnic table, making lanyards with the girls, stringing each bead one
by one in the crisp breeze. Further out in the field, Brian leads the boys in a group activity:
everyone joins hands and runs around. Here are the directions they followed! Whether you’re
a boy or a girl, feel free to join in on either—or both—activities.
Jenny’s Lanyards
• Ask the event organizers for a bag of lanyard materials.
• Thread the string through the hole in the lanyard clip, position the lanyard clip in the exact middle of
the string, then secure the lanyard clip there in a square knot.
• Pick a bead in your favorite color and thread it onto the left end of the string. Move it all the way up
the string to the square knot.
• Now take the right end of the string and thread it through the same bead, but backwards (from the
bottom part of the bead to the top part of the bead). Secure the bead so that the flat part of the bead
faces the square knot, and the two holes of the bead face the sides, with one end of the string coming
out of each.
• Place three more beads in your favorite color on the left end of the string.
• As before, take the right end of the string and thread it backwards through the three beads. Position
the three beads so that the holes face the sides of the lanyard, and the bead on the previous row is
aligned with the center bead.
• Place five more beads in your favorite color on the left end of the string. Thread the right end of the
string backwards through those five beads, and align them so that the beads on the previous row are
centered.
• The next rows are all formed the same way: string five beads on the left string, then thread the right
string through them backwards. So, for the next few strings, we will only list the colors of the five
beads on each row—but keep following the same directions.
• red, red, purple, white, yellow
• white, yellow, yellow, red, purple
• green, green, green, the color of the answer to Priming Herds, white
• blue, red, green, yellow, the color of the answer to Priming Herds
• green, green, green, the color of the answer to Priming Herds, white
• yellow, white, blue, blue, red
• white, red, yellow, red, purple
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• purple, purple, purple, purple, purple
• blue, white, red, white, purple
• green, red, brown, blue, green
• yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow
• white, blue, yellow, purple, brown
• yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow
• brown, purple, white, green, blue
• Use the color of the answer to Connect the Math for all 5 beads in this row
• red, white, purple, green, blue
• red, brown, blue, brown, purple
• yellow, green, purple, blue, yellow
• Use the color of the answer to Bored Games for all 5 beads in this row
• white, purple, white, brown, white
• white, yellow, red, orange, white
• orange, brown, yellow, green, red
• purple, green, brown, red, blue
• Use the color of the answer to Havoc for all 5 beads in this row
• yellow, red, white, purple, blue
• brown, green, brown, yellow, white
• orange, orange, orange, orange, orange
• red, white, purple, blue, yellow
• Use the color of the answer to Bubble Gum for all 5 beads in this row
• brown, blue, red, purple, brown
• brown, white, orange, yellow, brown
• green, purple, blue, red, white
• yellow, red, brown, orange, blue
• Do the next row in your favorite color.
• Put only three beads in the next row, in your favorite color, and make sure they’re centered.
• Put only one bead in the last row. Thread the right string through, and tie it off well.
• Have you found the secret message? Report it to the organizers!
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Human Knots
We’re going to use the answers you’ve found to play a game. Let’s try it out with a sample word - ROCKET.
This is a six letter word, so we’ll need six people. Everyone should stand in a circle, facing each other, and
raise their left hand. Pick one person to have go first. Their letter is the first letter of the word. On your
turn . . .
1. Starting with the person to your left as A, and going clockwise around the circle, spell out the alphabet
one letter per person (including you!) until you reach your letter. The person who you land on is your
new friend! For ROCKET, the first person will “land on” themselves
2. Reach your raised left hand over anyone else’s hands and grab your new friend’s right hand.
3. Your turn is done. The person to your left goes next, and their letter is the next letter of the word.
After everyone has had a turn, everyone’s right hand should be holding someone’s left hand. If you are
holding hands with yourself, step out of the circle and help everyone else try to untangle themselves! For
ROCKET, the remaining five people should be able to untangle themselves easily into a big circle . . . kind of
like the O in the title!
Enter your answers below, and get knotted up!
C
A
B
L
E
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