Three Finnish fruit-tree words, and three that stayed in English

Worth knowing before you print: three of the six words on this sheet are Finnish and three are not. BANAANI, KIRSIKKA and APPELSIINI — banana, cherry and orange — are the Finnish ones, and they are the reason to use the page. PALM, SPRUCE and FIR appear in English. If you are teaching Finnish, say so plainly to your child; a sheet that mixes two languages is easier to use once everyone knows it does.

The Finnish three are generous words for a beginner. They are long enough to be unmistakable in a grid, and close enough to English that a child can guess the meaning from the picture alone. APPELSIINI takes longest to find, so it makes a fair last word. Point out the doubled letters on the way past — the two Ns in BANAANI, the two Ks in KIRSIKKA — because Finnish means those doublings and holds the sound.

Use it after a fruit bowl has been emptied, or beside a window with a real tree in it. The searching is unhurried and there is no clock. If your child asks why some trees are named in English here, that is a conversation rather than a problem: languages borrow constantly, and BANAANI is itself a borrowed word that Finnish reshaped to fit its own spelling.