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Skills Covered

  • Code and decode words with a letter-shift rule
  • Work forward and backward through the alphabet
  • Answer multiple-choice coding questions
  • Use the number code A = 1 to Z = 26
  • Work out a code from examples
  • Find the rule behind a code and use it

How to Use This Pack

Five pages on coding and decoding, a standard chapter in logical reasoning workbooks and olympiad tests. Page 1 writes and cracks the next-letter code, where each letter becomes the one after it. Page 2 has eight multiple-choice questions in the familiar "If CAT is written DBU, how is PIG written?" form, using next-letter, back-one, two-ahead and backward codes. Page 3 uses the number code A = 1 to Z = 26, adds up the letters of words, and works out a digit code from examples such as ROSE = 6821. Page 4 practices backward and two-ahead codes. Page 5 solves word-swap codes, where words stand for other words, and finds the rule of four codes. The first item on each page is done as an example.

In the Classroom

Write CAT and DBU on the board and ask the class how each letter changed. Then try one word in each of the four codes before page 2, so students know the rules to test: one letter ahead, one letter back, two letters ahead, and backward. On the word-swap questions, model reading slowly: grass is green, and in this code green is called yellow.

At Home

Pick a code from the pack and write a short note to your child in it, then ask for a reply in the same code. A favorite game: one person codes a word, the other has to find the rule and the word.

Tips for Success

  • Keep the alphabet strip close and point to each letter as you move
  • After Z the alphabet starts again at A
  • To decode a forward code, move backward
  • Test one rule at a time on the example before choosing an answer
  • In a word-swap code, first answer the question in plain words, then swap

Common Core Standards Alignment

This pack supports the following Common Core State Standards for Mathematics:

  • 2.NBT.B.6 Find the sum of two, three or four two-digit numbers using place value and properties of addition.

© Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.

Coding and Decoding

2nd – 3rd Grade

A 5-page coding and decoding pack for 2nd and 3rd grade, the logical reasoning topic. Write and crack the next-letter code (CAT is DBU), answer olympiad-style questions like "If PEN is written NEP, how is CUP written?", use number codes and work out a code from examples, try backward and two-ahead codes, solve word-swap codes, and find the rule of a code. Every page comes in color and in black and white. Answer keys included.

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What’s Included

  • 5 worksheets in color and in black and white, with answer keys (15 pages)
  • Next-letter, back-one, two-ahead and backward codes
  • Eight olympiad-style multiple-choice questions
  • Number codes, word-swap codes and find-the-rule puzzles
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Free to print and share

This worksheet is free to download, print, copy, and hand out in your classroom or at home. You do not need to create an account, and there are no watermarks on the PDF.