Crack the Food Code!

Objective & content

This activity sheet turns spelling into a code game. Selin, who loves food, gives pupils a code of twelve shapes, each one standing for a letter. Pupils decode five food words (apple, cake, milk, pizza, bread) and one sentence, "I like cake.", then find the picture of each food. By the end, pupils spell five food words and read I like ....

Pedagogical guide

Pupils have to look at every letter: they find each shape in the code at the top (a star is A, a heart is B, a circle is C, and so on) and write its letter in the box under it. The shapes have colours too, but on the black and white copy the shape alone is enough, so every word decodes one way only. Lines 1 to 5 are the five food words; line 6 is Selin's sentence, "I like cake", in three words. Under the code, five pictures (pizza, bread, an apple, milk, a cake) come in a different order from the words, so the decoding still has to be done: pupils write the number of each word in the circle under its picture. The sheet ends with a turn-around: each pupil writes a food word in shapes on the back of the sheet, and a partner cracks it. Page 2 gives the answer key (the six lines and the picture numbers: pizza 4, bread 5, apple 1, milk 3, cake 2) and the teacher notes.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Say the five food words with the pictures at the bottom of the sheet; pupils say which ones they like: "I like pizza!"
2. (5 min) Show the code at the top and do line 1 together: find each shape, write its letter, read the word (apple), then write 1 in the circle under the apple.
3. (10 min) Pupils decode lines 2 to 6 alone and number the pictures.
4. (5 min) Check together with the answer key; pupils read Selin's sentence aloud.
5. (10 min) Each pupil writes a food word in shapes on the back of the sheet; partners swap sheets and crack each other's word.

Adaptations

[S] Give the first letter of each word.

[A] Pupils write their own sentence in code for a partner: "I like apples."

Materials & prerequisites

One copy per pupil of page 1, in colour or black and white, printed on one side only: the back of the sheet is where pupils write their own code. Pupils need a pencil. Page 2 is the answer key with teacher notes: keep it. Pupils should know the letters of the alphabet and have met a few food words.