I was in the middle of preparing the bunny design for the Spring themed mystery picture premade pack when my kids wandered over to look over my shoulder and immediately demanded a printout. There goes the surprise… but they seemed just as excited knowing what the design would be as when it is a surprise.
The b and d Struggle
Not so long ago I wouldn’t have believed that a letter reversal activity would be something my 6- and 9-year-old would both equally enjoy. While we’ve done the usual tricks, like the “bed” trick with their hands, and a Polish mnemonic (brzuch & dupka, which means belly & bum and makes them laugh and hopefully remember), nothing beats actual practice for building that muscle memory. My youngest was especially prone to mixups when writing, even though her reading is mostly secure.
We had used various activities from one of the dyslexia focused workbooks, but they either were too easy, too boring or most often quite small in scope. So when I stumbled upon mystery pictures, especially pixel art ones, it felt like a perfect match for single letter confusion practice. Each cell in the grid has a letter printed in it and the child matches it to a colour key. Get all the letters right and a hidden picture appears.
These really do tick the volume of practice box - even easy sheets might have over a hundred cells. And because the kids are eager to find out what the picture is (or prove who coloured it better, yes, there is occasionally some competition going on), their stamina seems to last a lot longer than with a regular worksheet.
The p and q Last Minute Addition
Back to the Easter story. While the kids did quite well with their b and d letter reversals, I noticed my daughter still showing some letter confusion around p and q in her writing. And it felt like a nice addition to make the holiday bundle. Even though it was a bit last minute 🙈
Off to come up with some more designs (it’s actually harder than it looks when trying to make 3 different difficulties and have variety) I went. The kids were eager to try the new pictures, but that is when I spotted a bit of a problem. It did not matter as much for the b, B, d, D group as all four letters are distinct, however p and P in print and on their own inside a cell proved challenging to differentiate.
This is exactly why I like to try out the premades before I put them up on Teachers Pay Teachers.
I ended up switching to a more handwritten font for this pack. For the curious, it’s Google’s Playwrite font. The kids confirmed it made the puzzles a lot more readable. 😄
Not Just for Easter
The designs are a mix of Easter and Spring themes, so they’ll work well past the holiday. There’s butterflies, chicks, bunnies, flowers, bees and ladybugs, and more. You can browse the ready-made packs or have a go at designing your own with the Pixel Draw activity.
If you’re after more structured daily practice and letter formation practice there’s also the lined paper generator that offers lined paper templates adjusted for different ability levels.
Happy colouring!