Build words from sound chunks, then word families, rhymes, blends, prefixes and suffixes, and spelling changes such as run + ing = running. Six levels.
This game builds one skill, which is seeing how words are put together from parts. Children who can tap together c and at to make cat are doing what reading teachers call blending onset and rime: the onset is the sound before the vowel, and the rime is the vowel and everything after it. The same idea carries all the way up to adding un, re, ful, less, ing and ed to a word. A puzzle is either a row of tiles that the child taps in order, or a choice between three words. A wrong answer says try again and shakes gently, a right answer earns a star, and a short sentence explains why after each puzzle. It is written for children of about 5 to 8 who know their letters and are starting to read.
Level 1, Sound chunks, shows a picture such as a cat or a bus and four tiles: an onset, a rime and two extra tiles that do not belong. The child builds the word, for example c + at. Level 2, Word families, asks which word ends with a given ending, such as -at, like hat. Level 3, Rhymes, asks which word rhymes with a word such as day, and the wrong choices often end with the same letters but sound different, for instance cow and snow. Level 4, Blends and digraphs, builds words such as ship, flag, clock and train from two-letter onsets plus a rime, with three extra tiles. Level 5, Prefix and suffix, gives a meaning such as not happy, full of care or play again and asks for the word, built from the base and un, re, ful or less. About a third of the puzzles need three pieces, such as un + help + ful for not full of help. Level 6, Word surgery, is the hard one. It asks for run + ing = running (a one-syllable word that ends in consonant, vowel, consonant doubles its last letter, but never w, x or y, so snow + ing = snowing), bake + ing = baking (drop the silent e), carry + ed = carried (change the y to i) and box = boxes or baby = babies. It also asks you to tell hop + ing = hopping from hope + ing = hoping. The wrong spellings on screen are the ones a child gets from using the wrong rule, and no single habit, such as always adding the ending or always doubling, gets more than half of them right.
The word bank was written for this game: 97 words made of an onset and a rime, 32 groups of rhyming words with 170 words in all, and 36 words built from a base and an affix, 3 of them with a prefix and a suffix. Every word is a common word a child will meet in books. Each puzzle is made from a random seed, so a given seed always gives the same puzzle, and Today's 5 uses the date so everyone gets the same five. On the tile levels only one order of tiles is accepted, and the game counts the ways the tiles can spell the word and rejects any extra tile that would add a second way. On the choice levels, the wrong answers are chosen so that none of them ends with the stated ending, rhymes with the word, or follows the spelling rule; the tests check this with spelling rules written separately from the game. Words that were missed come back about one time in three.
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 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. Puzzles that rely on a picture print the picture in black and white. A few puzzles in level 4 have no clear picture, so they are for the screen only and the child hears the word instead.
It does not listen to a child read aloud, and it does not teach letter sounds from scratch. The speaker button uses the voice built into your browser, so how a word sounds depends on the device. Rhymes are judged by sound as spoken in North American English, and a few words may rhyme differently in other accents. It is a few minutes of practice with word parts, not a reading programme, and it works best next to reading real books together. Nothing about your child is uploaded: stars, the level and missed words stay in this browser on this device.
It is written for ages 5 to 8. Level 1 uses three-letter words such as cat and bus with a picture. Level 6 uses spelling rules that many children meet in second grade, such as hopping and carried.
No. Every answer is a tap on a tile or a word. Levels 1 and 5 have 4 tiles, and level 4 has 5, so the child chooses the right chunks as well as putting them in order.
The rule is the skill. A child who taps run, n and ing has used the doubling rule: a one-syllable word that ends in a consonant, a vowel and a consonant doubles its last letter before ing or ed, except w, x and y. The extra e tile and the extra ed tile are there to tempt the wrong spelling.
The 32 rhyme groups were written by hand, and each word is in one group only. A wrong choice always comes from a different group, so it cannot rhyme with the word.
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.
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.