Track down FOURMI, LIBELLULE and four more French bug words

Six French words for small crawling and flying creatures are hidden in a single grid of letters, and a picture beside each one tells your child what to look for. The ant is FOURMI, the dragonfly LIBELLULE, the caterpillar CHENILLE. The child scans row by row and column by column until the letters line up, then rings the word. Recognising a whole word on sight is the point; nothing is sounded out.

The long ones cause most of the trouble. LIBELLULE runs to nine letters, and a child who has only heard it said aloud will often walk their eye straight past it. MOUSTIQUE is nine letters too, and the quiet ending catches people out. Point at the picture, say the word once together, then send the child back to the grid with the sound already in their head.

This works well as a quiet ten minutes after a French session, or on a car journey with a clipboard. Younger children can stop after three words and come back later; the sheet does not have to be finished in one sitting. Shorter entries like FOURMI, LIMACE and GRILLON are the ones most children find first, so let them start there and build up to the longer names at their own pace.