Colour words in Italian, buried in a page of letters

Each of the six answers comes with the colour it names sitting beside it, so a child who has only just met these words can still work out what to look for. Blue points to BLU, green to VERDE, pink to ROSA, peach to PESCA. Then the search begins: along the rows first, which is where most children start, and down the columns once the easy ones have gone.

Colours make a sensible first set in a new language, because the answer can be checked against something you can actually see. BLU is three letters and is usually gone within a minute. CREMISI, the crimson, is the one children come back to the word list for twice. BEIGE is spelled exactly as it is in English, and is very often overlooked for precisely that reason.

This works best straight after the colours have been said out loud — a painting session, a picture book, a lesson at school — so the written forms have something to hook onto. Afterwards you can keep it going without the sheet, asking for the Italian while sorting laundry or looking at cars in the street. Six words is a modest haul, and modest is often what makes them stay. Nobody feels tested by a set of six.