Name what you do — French words for six hobbies

LECTURE is the trap on this sheet. In French it means reading — not a talk given from a lectern — and a child who circles it here is meeting a false friend for the first time, which is a good age to meet one. Five more words are hidden alongside it: TENNIS, PÂTISSERIE, PATINAGE, ÉCRITURE and PEINTURE, each with a picture on the list showing the activity the word names.

There is a pattern underneath worth pointing out once the grid is done. PEINTURE, ÉCRITURE and LECTURE all finish the same way, because French often builds the name of an activity from the verb much as English adds -ing. Spotting that ending speeds the search up: a child who has found one of the three starts scanning for the tails of the others rather than their heads.

This suits a beginner who has heard the words in class and now needs them on paper. TENNIS is free — spelled exactly as in English — so it gives an easy first circle and a little momentum. PÂTISSERIE is the long one and usually goes last; the circumflex on the  is easy to lose among capital letters, so tell the child to hunt for the shape of the word rather than its marks. Ten quiet minutes, and nothing to mark at the end.