Oakton Elementary  Library

Pig latin is one of the most popular English code languages, in part because it’s so easy to learn. To speak or write it, all you have to do is move the first letter from the beginning of the word to the end and d add “-ay.”

You need is a pencil, a piece of paper, and a good book.

Find the first word of your message in the book and write down the page number, line number, and position of the word in the line. Keep doing this until you’ve put together an entire sentence—with notes for how to find each word. Then, give the person a copy of the book and your notes so they can have fun deciphering your code.

One of the best-known examples of a secret code is the decoder wheel. This fun tool assigns a number to each letter of the alphabet. Once you’ve written out a message in code, hand it and the decoder wheel over to a friend so they can translate it.

Ready to make your own decoder wheel? Use this print-out from Mrs. Hubbard