Dancing, singing, knitting — say it in Danish

Most beginner vocabulary is objects. This sheet is not: four of its six words name something a child does. DANS is dancing, SYNGE is singing, STRIKNING is knitting, and CAMPING means what it looks like. LEGEPLADS — playground — and VIOLIN round the set off. Every word is pictured, so a child who has never seen written Danish before can still work out which letters to go hunting for.

Actions are worth teaching early because they turn a word list into something you can say out loud. A child who knows SYNGE and DANS can be told syng! or dans! and will understand. The pictures carry all the meaning, so the sheet needs no translation column, and it makes no difference whether the adult holding the pencil speaks a word of Danish. That is unusual in language material for this age.

Wet playtimes, a language club, a half hour inside a topic on hobbies — this fits any of them. Read the words out while the children search: SYNGE has a soft y, and LEGEPLADS runs together as one word in the way Danish compounds do. Once the grid is finished, ask each child which activity they would pick, and see whether anyone answers in Danish.