Hear a word, then tap the letters to spell it. About 600 words from cat and sun to squirrel and February, six levels, and missed words that come back.
This is a spelling game that works like the first rounds of a school spelling bee. The device says a word, then a short sentence that uses it, then the word again, which is what a bee judge does when a speller asks for the word in a sentence. The child never reads the word on screen. Instead a row of letter tiles appears, and the child taps the tiles in the order the letters go. The game builds one skill, which is turning the sounds of a word into letters, along with the memory of how tricky words look. It is meant for children of about 5 to 8 who know their letters and are starting to read. Nothing needs to be typed, so there is no phone keyboard to fight with, and a wrong tile simply does not count until the whole word is right.
Level 1, Starter, has short words such as cat, sun, the and you, including the first sight words children meet in kindergarten. Level 2, Blends, adds words with two consonants together or a digraph, such as ship, frog, jump and think. Level 3, Magic e and teams, uses silent e and vowel pairs, such as cake, rain, light and cloud. Level 4, Tricky words, has words that do not follow the usual sounds, such as because, friend, said, would and people. Level 5, Bee words, moves to second and third grade words like butterfly, squirrel, beautiful, rabbit and favorite. Level 6, Bee champion, has silent letters, doubled letters and long words, such as knight, rhythm, island, science and February. The harder levels also add more extra tiles, and some are tempting on purpose, such as an extra a for a word with ee or a w for a word with oa. An extra tile is never a letter that the word uses, and the tiles are checked so they cannot spell a different word from the bank of the same length, so there is only one way to spell the word.
The bank has 614 words. The early levels draw on the Dolch sight word lists from the 1930s and 1940s, which are in the public domain, and the rest are common words that children meet in first, second and third grade, grouped by phonics pattern and by how hard they are to spell. Every sentence was written for this game. Each one is short and kind and uses the word in a way that shows its meaning, so that sound-alike words such as right and write, or one and won, can be told apart by the sentence. Words are lowercase and plain English with no brand names. The word list is not copied from any official competition list. A word is picked at random from the chosen level, and the game remembers words that were missed and brings them back about one time in three, so a tricky word returns until it is spelled correctly.
In the default mode the game moves a child up a level after three correct words in a row and down after two misses in a row. A child or parent can also pick a level directly. Today's 5 is a short set of five words made from the date on your device, so everyone with the same date gets the same five. Sessions are short on purpose, with no timer and no scores that can be lost. Feedback is gentle: a wrong tap shakes the tile and says try again, and a finished word earns a star.
It does not teach reading, and it cannot listen to the child say a word. It uses the voice built into your browser to speak, so the sound depends on the device, and a few words may sound slightly different from one device to another. If a device has no voice, a parent can read the word aloud. Print makes a spelling test for a parent to read aloud, with the words and sentences on the last page, and nothing is uploaded. It is not a replacement for reading together or for spelling lists from school. It is a few minutes of practice with words that a child will meet in books and in class.
It is written for ages 5 to 8. Level 1 has words of 2 to 4 letters, such as cat and the. Level 6 has words such as knight and February, which many adults still need to think about.
No. The child taps letter tiles in order. Each level adds 2 to 4 extra tiles that are not in the word, so the child has to choose the right ones as well as put them in order.
The word is spoken, as in a real spelling bee, so the child practises turning sounds into letters instead of copying. The speaker button says the word, a short sentence and the word again as often as needed.
The word is not marked as done. The game says try again, and the missed word is added to a list that brings it back about one time in three. A word is spelled right only when every letter is in the right order.
614 words across 6 levels. The early levels use Dolch sight words, which are in the public domain. All of the sentences were written for this game.
No. The game runs in your browser, and nothing about your child is uploaded. Stars, the level and the list of missed words are kept in this browser on this device. The page counts visits with Google Analytics, never answers.