What you need
The printed template
Card
A craft knife, ruler and cutting mat
A pencil
An adult for the cutting
How to build it
Cut out the nine windowsAn adult holds the knife. Mark the dot corner clearly on both sides of the card.
Lay it on paper, dot at the top leftWrite the first nine letters of your message, one in each window.
Turn the card a quarter turnDot now at the top right. Nine new windows appear over nine empty squares.
Write the next nineThen turn again, and again, until you have gone all the way round.
Lift the card offThirty-six letters, no gaps, no order anybody can see.
Fill any spare squares with nullsIf your message is short, put in letters that mean nothing.
The windows have to be chosen so that four turns cover every square exactly once. Cut only the dashed ones on this template, or it will not work.
The template
Print this at 100 per cent, not fit to page, or the sizes will be wrong. The ruler line below tells you whether it printed correctly.
The bar above should measure exactly 10 centimetres. If it does not, your printer has shrunk the page.
Now send something
Hide THE PARCEL IS IN THE SHED BEHIND THE OLD GREEN DOOR, which is exactly thirty-six letters if you drop the spaces.
Route with nullsBack to MakeRead more elsewhere
Longer, harder and written for grown-ups. Worth a look when this page runs out.