POULE or POULET? Two near-twins hiding in the same grid

Six French bird names are hidden here: POULE for a hen, POULET for a chicken, OIE for a goose, HIBOU for an owl, HÉRON for a heron, and VAUTOUR for a vulture. Each is matched to a picture, so a child sees the bird first and then goes looking for the word that names it, reading along the rows and down the columns. Six is a small enough set to hold in mind all at once.

POULE and POULET share their first five letters and sit in the same grid, which is the interesting difficulty. A child who finds POULE and stops has not finished; a child who finds POULET has to check whether the shorter word is buried inside it or somewhere else entirely. Slowing down at that pair is the real work of the sheet. HIBOU and VAUTOUR give no trouble by comparison; they look like nothing else in the letters.

It goes well with a farm visit or a book about birds, for a child collecting their first hundred French nouns. Sit with them for the first two words and let them do the rest alone. If the pair defeats them, cover the last two letters of POULET with a finger and let them see the difference for themselves. Reading the six aloud at the end is worth more than the circling.