I wanted to write a quick post to share a new word search I made. I make printables all the time so I'll try to share them as much as I can. My oldest likes having a basket of things to work on when she gets bored and it can be a challenge to keep the basket full of relevant, fun activities. I mentioned on another post that she loves "search and find" type of worksheets, so I try to find or make them for whatever we happen to be working on. At the moment we're reviewing Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) "-at" words. I had trouble finding small, uncomplicated word searches with only CVC long "a" words, so I'm going to make a whole series.
I like word searches for a number of reasons. They help to teach her concentration. She has to concentrate on which word she's looking for, which improves her working memory. She also has to concentrate on where she is on the search page. When we first introduced word searches, she moved over the page in a random fashion, skipping over some areas and looking at others multiple times. She's learning to order her thinking and now tends to start at the top and work her way down the page.
They also help to teach her pattern recognition. I especially like that this one has all of the same "-at" endings to really drill the pattern recognition. Plus word searches are just plain fun.
Some may frown on them as a waste of time but I like anything that can stimulate my kid enough to hold her attention for longer than 30 minutes, without a screen or flashing lights.
So without further ado, here is our beginner word search using seven words. They are only spelled up and down or horizontally. We don't need to throw any confusing diagonal or backward spelling into the mix yet!
I'll be posting the rest of the CVC word search series as I make them, over the next two weeks.
Here is a link to the word searches I've made and posted so far:
