Use a secret message activity to reinforce a vocabulary lesson. Type a list of vocabulary words and omit a few letters from each of the words; the trick is to omit letters that, when combined, will form a secret message. Students have to analyze the vocabulary words and fill in the missing letters; the missing letters should be put together to form a message. If the correct letters have been placed in the spelling words, a message that makes sense will be revealed.
Write a short story and embed a secret message within the words of the story. Write a story that pertains to something that students have recently studied; for example, if your class studied colonial times, write a story about life in the colonies. As you're typing the story, type the words in regular font, but type letters that pertain to the secret message in bold font. For example, if the letter "L" in "school" is part of the secret message, type the letter in a bold font. As students are reading the story, they should write the bold letters down on a separate sheet of paper. When all the bold letters are written down, they will reveal a secret message.
Secret message activities can reinforce math skills. Create a set of math problems for your students to answer. On the bottom of the page, write out the letters of the alphabet and above each letter, write a number; the numbers represent the answers to the math problems. For example, if the letter "A" has the number five written above it, all math problems that have an answer of five will represent the letter "A." After solving all of the math problems, children should plug in their answers to the letters to reveal a secret message.
Create a secret message that reinforces letter and word recognition, or use it to simply provide students with an entertaining activity to complete after they've finished an exam or at the end of the day. Think of a message and write it out. Change the letters of the message to different letters; for example, change B's to M's and A's to R's. At the bottom of the page, provide instructions that tell students which letters to change the letters in the message to. After changing all the letters, a message that makes sense will appear.