Word Anagrams

Materials

• Cards with one hiragana character on each
• Picture cards showing the answers

How to play

1. The facilitator prepares familiar words of 3–5 characters, using one card per character, then shuffles them. Japanese examples are sakura (さ・く・ら, cherry blossom) and kuruma (く・る・ま, car).
2. Give each group one scrambled word. Work together to arrange an object name, using every card exactly once.
3. Read the result aloud to check it. If the group is stuck, show a picture of the answer or its first character as a hint.
4. Accept another valid word if it uses exactly the supplied cards. Try about five puzzles. Once confident, let children create and exchange puzzles.

Ways to adapt

Preschool children: two characters with a picture model. Younger primary school children: 3–4 characters. Older primary school children: six or more, or two possible answers.

Sources and references

• 大阪府立中津支援学校 令和2年度「一人1研究」教材教具集（PDF13ページ・冊子12ページ） ↗