The Letter Race (or Letter Hunt, Depending)

This is a quick and easy way to keep my students' minds sharp when it comes to letter recognition.

First, I took a simple word search (this one generously donated by a fifth grade teacher friend.) I cut the bottom half off and placed it on top so that a single sheet would give me two worksheets.

Next, I made a list of how many times a letter appeared on the word search. Sometimes I found only 3, sometimes over 20. And a couple had none. For those letters without any appearances, I looked for another word search that had some. Otherwise, THIS ONE WORD SEARCH will work for nearly the entire alphabet!

I called 4-5 students at a time over to the table. As I passed out the sheet UPSIDE DOWN, they each got a highlighter. If there were only a few of a certain letter, I would make the game a RACE. (Ex: There are just 3 Qs. First person to find them wins the sticker!) If there were many, I'd make it a HUNT. (Ex: You have one minute to find as many As as you can. Person who finds the most wins!) I'd then say go, and they'd turn their papers over and get going!

The neat thing about this game is, if there are students who are unsure and they look on someone else's paper, that's okay. They are reinforcing for themselves what the letter looks like.