Recommended Age: 4 and ½ years and onwards
Level of Parent Involvement: Low, showing the child the first time requires a short amount of time. Once the child has been shown they may repeat the exercise independently
Prerequisites
- This exercise can be done in conjunction with the child building their knowledge of sounds through work with the sandpaper letters
- The child must have a repertoire of puzzle words which they have memorised (see ‘Puzzle words’ activity)
Materials
- A newspaper or magazine
- Highlighters (3 different colours)
- A small note book
- A writing pencil
- An eraser
- A small tray or basket to keep the materials
Preparation
- Ensure you have a newspaper or magazine which the child may use for this exercise
- Place the highlighter, note book, writing pencil and eraser in the tray/basket
Steps
- Invite the child letting them know that you have a special job for them today, inform the child that “today you will be a puzzle word detective”
- Show the child the tray with the materials, the child may bring the tray to their table
- Place the newspaper or magazine in front of the child
- Model how to turn the pages from the corner
- Ask the child if they can recall any puzzle words they know (they child should be able to identify some from experiences with the ‘Puzzle words’ activity from the library
- If the cannot recall any you may prompt the child with puzzle words which have been presented in previous 3 period lessons
- Let the child know that they are a detective and you need them to find puzzle words in the newspaper or magazine
- Together with the child decide on a puzzle word, for example ‘the’
- You may write the puzzle word on the first page in the child’s notebook for their reference, highlighting the word with the colour you are going to use to search for the word
- Take the newspaper/magazine and begin scanning the first page, from the first sentence, left to right
- When you find ‘the’ highlight with the highlighter
- Continue scanning the page until you get to the next ‘the’ highlight and continue scanning the page
- Once you get to the bottom of the page, invite the child to turn the page and begin searching and highlighting each time they find the word ‘the’ with the highlighter
- Leave the child to work independently
- Come back after 5-10 minutes, checking in with the child to see if they would like to continue searching for ‘the’ or if they would like to search for a new puzzle word
- Write the new puzzle word on the next page in the child’s notebook for example ‘when’ and highlight in a different colour
- Give the child the different coloured highlighter and invite them to search for the word ‘when’, highlighting each time they find the word
- Leave the child to work independently, coming back after another 5-10 minutes to write a new puzzle word for the child to search for
Variations
- The child may copy the sentences containing the puzzle word in their note book
- The child may count and write down in their note book how many times they found each word
Note
- Ensure the child searches for words they have previously learnt in 3 period lessons
