Kids love to get secret or coded messages
You can make simple coded messages by letting each letter be represented by a number – and there are many variations on this idea. One fun and personal variation is to send the kids a picture of yourself or of some interesting scene, with parts of your face (or objects in the picture) labeled with numbers.
For example, in a picture of yourself, you could number your Moustache (letter M) with the number 20, your Ear with the number 14, your Shirt with number 5, your Adam’s Apple with number 2, and your Glasses with number 8. Then, this “secret message”
20 14 5 5 2 8 14
Would be decoded as
M E S S A G E
20 14 5 5 2 8 14
How to make a Paint-by-Numbers secret message:
write a message you’d like to send.
create the code that you will use. This Code Template File will help.
print a suitably “pale” picture and manually add numbers onto it.
check to be sure your picture includes numbers for all of the letters in your message – you might need to make some changes.
write the coded “secret message” on another page.
Finally, give or send the picture and secret message to your young friends or relatives!