O Canada Puzzles for Kids

Christine Linge MacDonald, a past director of the Toronto & District
Parent Co-operative Preschool Corporation and a freelance writer, is an
elementary school teacher in Whitby.

Whether you are a teacher looking for some Canadian-oriented activities
or a parent hoping to sharpen your child’s sense of Canadian culture
and history, this small volume is a welcome arrival. The authors have
used imaginative ways to integrate Canadian content into traditional
puzzles like crosswords, word searches, word-length puzzles (where the
reader must find the correct placement for a word in a crossword
according to its length), jumbled words, and rhebuses. They have also
created new puzzles, such as using the last letter or two of a place
name to begin another place name, and concealing the names of several
wild animals in a letter array, allowing only the first letter of the
word (the central letter) to be common.

The difficulty level ranges from Grade 4 (the word searches and word
placement puzzles) to Grade 6 (the crossword clues require a growing
knowledge of Canadian historical and sports personalities). Throughout
the volume the authors’ sense of fun is evident; most adults would
also find these games amusing, especially the ones that feature places
named after food, or place names with charming or strange sounds. This
handy, well-thought-out, entertaining collection provides children with
a learning experience while raising Canadian cultural consciousness.
Recommended.