Six Italian job names, and the endings that lead you to them

Six Italian job names are buried in this grid, and the pictures show who does what: the doctor, the mechanic, the musician, the actor, the paramedic and the police officer. Your child matches picture to word, then searches the rows and columns until the letters line up. ATTORE and DOTTORE, at six and seven letters, are the easiest ways in. MUSICISTA and MECCANICO, nine letters apiece, will need a second sweep of the grid.

Endings do a lot of the work in this set. MUSICISTA takes -ISTA; MECCANICO and PARAMEDICO take -ICO; ATTORE and DOTTORE take -ORE. A child who spots the pattern can hunt by the last three letters instead of the first, which is quicker through a crowded grid and a habit worth encouraging early on. Reading the whole list aloud once beforehand fixes those endings in the ear.

These are the masculine forms, which is what a beginner meets first, and that deserves one sentence rather than a lesson. The sheet fits a topic on people who help us, or the week before a visit where a uniform will be on show. POLIZIOTTO runs to ten letters and is usually last to be circled; send your child after its double T. It is a sheet children want to talk over, so leave a little time for the questions.