Multisensory Monday: Holiday Card Puzzles

The holidays have come and gone, but what do you do with all the holiday cards you received? They are so pretty, and it is a shame to throw them away! This activity repurposes them and gives the kids something constructive to do over break by making them into puzzles! You can also save them for classroom activities in the new year.

Of course, we will add a phonics flair by writing letters or words on the back of the puzzle pieces for students to unscramble and write after they complete the puzzle! You can create puzzles for any skill: Red Word Review, Magic-e, vowel teams, dictation sentences, and more!

Creating a Christmas Card Puzzle

First, remove the front of your Christmas card to make a puzzle. Then turn the picture over and draw simple shapes for each letter, letter combination, or word. Write them in the shapes and then cut them out. The more cards you have, the more puzzles you can make! Since they are already on card stock, they will last for years to come when safely stored in a bag or container.

After your student has assembled the puzzle, have them flip each piece over to show the letters or words. From there, have them unscramble the word or sentence on a piece of paper.

The example shown is for the word “flake.”

Tips

For Red Words, write one letter on the back of each puzzle piece using a red crayon or marker.

For diction words, make sure you keep your blends, digraphs, and vowel teams together on each piece.

For Magic-e words, make the “e” a different color than the other letters.

For sentences, write one word on each piece along with punctuation and capitalization.

Written by Julie Palermo.

Julie is a Reading Interventionist and Brainspring tutor.

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