Playing Boggle with Evelyn
Age: 7 years old
Length: 40 minutes
Materials
- A Boggle game set with letter dice and a tray
- Paper and pencil for Evelyn and the adult
- A timer or clock
Goal
Evelyn will learn how to find words in a Boggle grid by connecting letters that touch horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. She will practise reading, spelling, and noticing word patterns.
Lesson
1. Hook: The letter hunt — 5 minutes
Say: “Today we are going on a word hunt. How many words can we find hiding in these letters?”
Write these letters in a small grid:
| C | A | T |
| R | E | N |
| S | O | P |
Ask Evelyn to find words by joining letters that touch. Let her find words such as cat, car, can, ten, top, and son.
Explain: “Letters can touch across, up and down, or diagonally. We cannot jump over a letter. We also cannot use the same letter cube twice in one word.”
2. Show it: How to play — 8 minutes
- Shake the letter dice and place them in the tray.
- Turn the tray so every letter is showing.
- Set the timer for 2 minutes.
- Each player writes down as many words as possible.
- Words must have at least three letters.
- Letters in a word must touch, including diagonally.
- A letter cube may not be used twice in the same word.
- When time ends, players stop writing.
Use the example grid below to demonstrate:
| S | U | N | D |
| C | A | T | O |
| R | E | P | G |
| B | I | R | D |
Trace or point to these examples:
- sun: S → U → N
- cat: C → A → T
- bird: B → I → R → D
- red: R → E → D
Explain the scoring gently: “For today, we will celebrate every correct word. In regular Boggle, longer words earn more points.”
3. Do it together: Practice round — 10 minutes
Shake the Boggle dice and make a grid. Do one practice round together for 2 minutes.
Before starting, remind Evelyn:
- “Look for short words first.”
- “Try adding a letter to a word you already see. For example, cat might become cats.”
- “Look for common beginnings such as un-, re-, and s-.”
When time ends, take turns reading the words aloud. Check each word by tracing its letters on the board. If Evelyn writes an unusual word, ask her to explain what it means or use it in a sentence.
For this first round, do not worry about duplicate words. Simply cross out a word only if it cannot be traced or is not a word Evelyn knows.
4. Evelyn plays independently — 10 minutes
Shake the dice again. Evelyn plays her own 2-minute round while you also make a list.
Encourage her with questions rather than giving answers:
- “Can you find a word beginning with s?”
- “Can you find a three-letter word?”
- “Can you make a longer word from one you already found?”
- “Do any letters touch diagonally?”
After the timer ends, compare lists. Let Evelyn circle:
- one word she is proud of finding;
- one word with four or more letters;
- one word she can use in a sentence.
5. Final challenge and recap — 5 minutes
Give Evelyn one final 1-minute challenge: “Find three words, each beginning with a different letter.”
Ask:
- “How must letters touch in Boggle?”
- “Can we use the same letter cube twice in one word?”
- “How many letters must a word have today?”
Quick check
Show Evelyn this grid and ask her to trace one possible word of at least three letters:
| M | A | P |
| R | E | N |
| S | O | T |
Accept words such as map, man, men, mat, ran, red, son, or not if Evelyn can trace the letters correctly.
Make it easier: Use a 3-by-3 grid, allow only three- and four-letter words, and find words together.
Make it harder: Use the standard scoring system, require words to be at least four letters long, or challenge Evelyn to find a word with six or more letters.