Recently while visiting friends I noticed my three-year-old using some first words puzzles. He worked on them with focus and completed the whole box of puzzles repeatedly.  The puzzles are simple cvc (consonant, vowel, consonant) cardboard puzzles with a word and a corresponding picture. They are self-correcting - so the child can't go wrong in putting them together - perfect for the 3-4 year age group. 

I started to look for something similar and I found the Big Box of Little Word Puzzles. I like these as the images are photographic and interesting. The letter pieces can be interchanged from another puzzle - so the child can look at the image and see if it makes sense and also check the colour strip at the bottom of the puzzle. This is useful as it teaches the child to check their work. I can see my child put the wrong pieces together, notice the error and then correct it! 

My three-year-old is at the start of his reading journey however he loves this work. The cvc puzzles will be really helpful once the child begins to blend sounds. 

For a young child, we could present one word puzzle and then build up to two and three. We currently have around twelve words/puzzles out. 

This pack contains 60 puzzles so there are lots of words (and sounds) to work with. 

It is a fun and engaging way to reinforce knowledge and help develop phonemic awareness.

The pictures for verbs like dig, pop, run, nap, hug, are particularly engaging as they include photographs of real children.

In Australia, the CVC puzzles from Junior Learning and Learning Can Be Fun - Three Letter Word Puzzles are similar. 

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