halloween word search

originally published 10/26/11 but republished today for you!

Homework time over here this week and last has been a little spooky.

Just a bit.

Cora and Owen have been rockin the Halloween Word Search, which I made last year for Owen when he was on his crazy word search kick and which I made not a single change to this year.

Owen is much more into the ole word search halloween, but Cora did give it a go twice, never actually finding all of the words–or even caring that she didn’t. She did, however, love the idea that she had ‘work’ to do just like Maddy and Owen at homework time.

So while they worked, she worked. . .

Here’s the skinny:

Halloween Word Search: I didn’t get a chance to edit the document and that was actually fine because, like I said, Cora gave it a go for a bit but wasn’t in love with it.

It could be that it was too much for her–too many small letters all jumbled together–or that word searches just aren’t her game. Perhaps a bit of both.

She was very excited at first, when I sat down next to her and read through each of the words she had to find. I drew tiny pictures of each, right next to the word to help her remember each.

We talked about strategies for hunting for each word, like:

going line by line and searching for the first letter, then looking for the second letter once you find the first;

using a piece of paper to help guide you as you look at each line of letters;

saying the first letter over and over in your head so you remember; and

looking for double letters.

word search halloween

We talked about different ways of identifying each word, like:

using a highlighter to highlight the word;

using a different color to highlight each word;

using water colors to paint each word;

circling each letter of the word;

circling the whole word.

She searched a bit, choosing to use her Hello Kitty pen o’many colors, but when Maddy and Owen were finished with their work, she was finished with hers. She asked to finish her word search the next day, but she decided that coloring her tiny Mickey Mouse coloring pages was what she needed to do instead.

I bet if there were jewels in the word search, or sparkles or glitter, she’d be more game. . .