Egg Puzzles Make Eggs-tra Springtime Fun!
Is your child or are your students ready to experience the thrill of cracking the code in two-syllable words?
It’s time to get creative with those colored, plastic eggs.
Mix and match halves.
Write a syllable on each have of the eggs. Twist the halves and challenge your child to match the halves so that all are real words.
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Does the child know about open syllables with long vowel sounds and closed syllables with short vowel sounds? Try making an egg with words like these:
fo cus
si lent
ba sic
ro bot
*ce ment
u nit
*gi ant
*In these words, the c and g represent the soft c sound (/s/) and the soft g sound (/j/). If you are including these words on an egg, make sure your students already understand that c and g each have two possible sounds.
**After the puzzle is solved, you can chat briefly about what the words mean, including coming up with examples and non-examples. How about thought-provoking questions? Would an ant ever be considered a giant? Hmm. Could you have a silent robot? a giant robot? How about a silent, giant robot?
*** How about writing the words? Filling in blanks in a sentence? Adding suffixes to words when putting the target words into the sentences?
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What about Bossy R — er?
su per
fe ver
spi der
ca per
o ver
fi ber
la ser*
*Point out that the s in this word is pronounced with the /z/ sound.
**You can discuss the multiple meanings of words (homographs). Which of these words have multiple meanings?! YOU decide which words to include based on your child’s age/readiness. The goal is to challenge their thinking without overwhelming them.
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How about an egg with “twins” in the middle and y at the end:
hap py
sil ly
fun ny
dad dy
mom my
fun ny
kit ty
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How about eggs-tra play with affixes (prefixes and suffixes)?
How could you use the eggs for prefix play? (re mix, un kind, mis spell, re make, un do, mis read, un pack, re take, mis treat …) Is there more than one way to “solve” your egg puzzle? Discuss the meanings. Other prefixes with bound roots? (ex plode, sub tract, re ject, …
Suffix play? (safe ly, pave ment, sad ness) Watch out for suffix rules that affect spelling. If you include words that need application of a suffix rule, make that part of the eggs-tra challenge. (happy ness, sad est, time ing, …)
CHECK BACK OFTEN FOR ADDITIONAL IDEAS!