Hello from Auntie Anne! šŸ’Œ

Ethan, I want to teach you a new code so you have a new secret message spy tool. It's called the Caesar cipher, and it is more than 2,000 years old!

A long time ago, the Roman general Julius Caesar really used this code to send secret battle orders to his army. If an enemy stole the message, they just saw a jumble of letters and couldn't read his military secrets. It works by sliding every letter down the alphabet by the same number of steps. You can read the whole story on Wikipedia here.

Already finished the pigpen puzzle at the bottom of the page? Amazing!! Here is your next challenge. šŸ•µļø

Step 1: slide by 1  (a = b)

In this code every letter moves forward by ONE. So a becomes b, b becomes c, and z wraps all the way back around to a. Use the strip below: find each secret letter on the bottom row, then read the real letter right above it.

Here is your secret message:

Step 2: the REAL Caesar cipher — slide by 3  (a = d)

Julius Caesar's favorite shift was THREE. So a becomes d, b becomes e, and so on around the alphabet. This one is trickier — take your time and use the new strip!

Here is your secret message:


🐷 Your first puzzle: the pigpen cipher

This is the puzzle you already know! Every little symbol below is one letter. Use the key at the bottom to figure out what it says. You got this!

The secret message

only click if you're sure you're done!

The decoder key

Each symbol stands for a letter. Match them up!


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