Tap word tiles to build sentences and questions, fix capitals and end marks, pick is or are, past tense words, and join sentences with because, but and so. Six levels.
This game builds one skill, which is putting words together into sentences that are correct as well as sensible. The early levels are about word order and end marks. The middle level is about spotting mistakes, the way a child does when checking their own writing: a missing capital letter, a missing full stop, a question with a full stop on it, is where it should be are, was where it should be were, a before a vowel sound. The top levels ask for things that trip up many seven-year-olds: the past tense of words such as go, run and eat, joining two ideas with because, but or so, and a comma that changes who a sentence is talking to. At the top level one sentence can need two choices at once, the right joining word and the right past tense word. A puzzle is a row of word tiles to tap in order, or a choice. A wrong answer says try again and shakes gently, a right answer earns a star, and one short sentence explains why.
Level 1, Hear it, build it, reads a short sentence aloud, such as The cat sat, shows a picture, and gives the words as tiles. Level 2, Where and when, adds time and place words such as today and in the park. They can go at the start or the end, and now can also go before the verb, so Birds now sing and Birds in the tree sing are both right. Every order the game knows to be good English is accepted, and the extra end mark tile is a question mark that is never right for a telling sentence. Level 3, Questions, builds questions such as Where is my hat. A question said with a rising voice, such as You can swim, also counts, and a full stop tile is never right. Level 4, Fix it, shows three sentences and asks which one is written correctly, with 40 sentences covering capitals, names, full stops, question marks, is and are, was and were, and a and an. Level 5, Yesterday, shows one sentence with two blanks, such as Yesterday we went to the park and ate a snack, and asks for the pair of past tense words that is right in both blanks, from four choices such as went and ate, goed and ate, or go and eat. Level 6, Join and punctuate, asks which of because, but and so fits a sentence, which joining word and which past tense word fit together in one sentence, and which sentence is talking to a person, as in Let's eat, Dad.
Every sentence was written for this game. In the building levels, each puzzle accepts only a list of sentences made from the same tiles. For level 2 that list is made by a rule: each time or place phrase goes at the start or the end, now can go before the verb, and a place that begins with in the can go right after a noun subject. For level 3 each question has a short list of orders. The tests rebuild every order of the tiles for the smaller puzzles and compare the list with a separate grammar written in the test file, so a good order missing from the list, or a bad one on it, fails the tests. Level 1 only uses sentences where the words fit one way, such as I see a fish, because the subject is I or we. The tiles are shown in lower case, and the game checks the words and the end mark, so the capital letter is practised in level 4. In the choice levels the tests check that exactly one choice is right: the 40 fix-it sentences are checked with a separate grammar checker that finds every wrong one, and the past tense choices differ from the right pair by a wrong form. Each because, but or so sentence also has a written note saying why the other two words do not fit, and the tests check that a blank after a comma is always a but or a so, and a blank with no comma is always a because. The notes were written by hand, so a parent who finds a sentence where two joining words work is welcome to tell us.
In the default mode the game moves up a level after three right answers in a row and down after two misses in a row. A child or parent can also pick any level. Today's 5 is a set of five puzzles made from the date on your device. Print makes a worksheet of 4, 6 or 8 new puzzles on Letter or A4 paper, with a name line and an answer key on the last page. On paper, the word tiles are lettered, and the child writes the letters in the order the words should go. A parent can read the sentence out for level 1 and 3.
It does not mark a child's own writing, and it only knows the orders it was given. It accepts the grammatical orders of the tiles it knows about, but a child can still build a real sentence that is not on its list, and then it will not count, which is why the building levels read the sentence aloud. It does not teach handwriting, and it does not cover all of grammar: it has no work on plural nouns, commas in lists or apostrophes for owning things. The speaker button uses the voice built into your browser, so how a sentence sounds depends on the device. Nothing about your child is uploaded: stars, the level and missed items stay in this browser on this device.
It is written for ages 5 to 8. Level 1 has sentences of 3 or 4 words such as I can run. Level 6 has because, but and so, and a comma before a name, which many children meet in second grade.
Each building puzzle accepts a list of sentences. Level 1 accepts the one sentence read aloud. Level 2 accepts every order of the time and place words that is good English, from 2 to 11 sentences depending on the puzzle. Level 3 accepts the question and, where it is good English, the same words said as a question with a rising voice. A different real sentence is not on the list, so the child hears the sentence first and builds that one.
The tiles can go first or last, and a word at the start of a sentence needs a capital. So the game does not make the child choose between The and the. Capital letters are practised in level 4, Fix it, where the wrong sentences have a missing capital or a capital in the wrong place.
No. Every answer is a tap on a word, a tile or a sentence. Level 2 has up to 10 tiles, and the child has to pick the right end mark as well as the words.
Yes. Print makes 4, 6 or 8 new puzzles on Letter or A4 paper with the answers on the last page. Tile puzzles are printed with lettered tiles, so the child writes the letters in order, and the picture prints in black and white.
No. The game runs in your browser, and nothing about your child is uploaded. Stars and the level are kept in this browser on this device. The page counts visits with Google Analytics, never answers.