These are not your grandmother's old search and find paper word find puzzles! Anyone who has ever seen the wonder in a new reader's eyes, as the world of words opens up to them, knows what a joy reading is to children developing reading skills. Get in the car with any new reader, and before long, you will see signs you never saw before, and see the joy and excitement of the new reader, as they see a whole new facet of the world becoming real before them.

Everyone remembers their first reader. "See Spot! See Spot run! Run, Spot run!"? That remembered, word find puzzles can be used at your child's party as entertainment, but you must keep it simple.

Not only will this be a great learning tool, and wonderful entertainment for your new reader's party, it can be a 'do it yourself game' that costs very little. To make this game yourself, here is your shopping list:

" 1 roll of heavy plastic
" A variety of brightly colored permanent markers
" Scissors
" Several boxes of washable markers, or dry erase markers
" Large sponge material to be cut into erasers

Cut the plastic into large squares, approximately 3x3 feet in size. Print, in brightly colored block letters, words your child knows from reading class at school. A good suggestion for this age group is to write all the words from left to right, as they would normally appear in their readers. Then, surround the letters with random letters of the alphabet. A decorative border of the ABC's in order will make the word puzzle look nice.

The children can each be given their own plastic word find puzzle sheet, their own washable markers, and an eraser, to take home as party favors. These sheets will be used again and again, and while being very simple, inexpensive, and fun, your do it yourself word find puzzles, will be great learning tools as well.