A Finnish breakfast table, spelled out in letters

Cheese, honey, blueberries, bacon, sausage and a grapefruit: an ordinary breakfast, named in Finnish. JUUSTO, HUNAJA, MUSTIKKA, PEKONI, MAKKARA and GREIPPI lie across and down in the grid, and each has its picture printed at the top of the sheet, so a child knows what they are looking for before they begin. Not one of the six is hard to picture, which is what makes a food list a sound choice for a first hunt.

Half of this list can be guessed at and half cannot. PEKONI and GREIPPI are borrowed words wearing Finnish clothes — a vowel added at the end, the spelling made regular — and children usually spot them straight away. MUSTIKKA and MAKKARA give nothing away to an English ear, so they are the two worth saying aloud a few times before the search starts. Say them slowly: Finnish sounds every letter it writes, and there is nothing silent to trip over.

Food words earn their keep because they come round again the next morning. Use this before a themed week, or keep it for the day a child asks what something is called. To stretch it, cover the word list afterwards and ask them to name each picture unaided — the search does the recognising, the naming does the rest.