Word Find

What You Need:

• Paper plate
• Pencil
• Dark marker
• Construction paper in four colors
• Nickel
• Scissors

What You Do:

1. Before you get your young reader involved, pick out three easy words that he knows already.  It's important that these words include a variety of letters. We used “away,” “here,” and “jump.” The instructions will be written using these three words.
2. On the paper plate, trace the nickel to make a grid of 5 rows with 5 columns. 
3. Use the nickel to trace circles on the construction paper. You'll need to draw four circles on one color of construction paper for "away," four on the second color for "here," and four on the third color for "jump." Trace 13 circles on the last color. These are for the remaining spaces in the grid.
4. Cut out all of the circles.
5. On the bottom row of the grid, write "jump." Letter four matching markers J, U, M and P.  
6. Repeat step 4 for "here" and "away."  
7. Fill in the remaining spaces in the grid. Be careful not to use any of the letters in your three sight words. As you fill in the “extra” spaces, make corresponding markers.
8. Call your child in to play. As he lays the markers on the grid, the words will emerge from the background.

Make additional grids and have your child work through the set to hone his letter and word recognition skills. You can also make larger grids with even more words if he wants an even greater challenge.