Reading · Pre-K to Grade 1–2
Sound it
Your child hears which words start with the same sound, using the pictures from their storybooks.
Pictures appear with their names said aloud. Your child taps the ones that start the same, or, from Grade 1, the one that does not.
- Pre-K to Grade 1–2
- 5 min
- Nothing to prepare
- On the screen
Free to sign up.
Is it a good fit?
- Ready if Your child can say the names of most pictures in a book they have read.
- Too much today? The Pre-K level: three pictures, two that start the same.
- Too easy? The Grade 1–2 level: four pictures with their names written, and the one that starts differently.
What your child practises
- Listening for the first sound
- Saying words slowly
- From Grade 1, seeing one sound written two ways
“Snail and stool go sss!”
If your child says something like this, in their own words, the idea has landed. Finishing the rounds means they took part; this is the learning.
Your part
- Nothing to prepare
- Say the names with your child, stretching the first sound
- At Pre-K, play together
Take it off the screen (optional)
Play "I spy something starting with..." with the sound, not the letter: "something starting with sss".
More like this
The full design
What it is
Pictures from your child's storybooks, each with its name said aloud. Your child listens for the sound each name starts with and finds the ones that start the same. It is the sound that counts, not the letter: kitten and cloud start the same, and so do city and sun. Hearing the first sound of a word is one of the first steps into reading.
How it goes
The Pet says each name as its picture appears, stretching the first sound a little. A tap says a name again. Two right (or, at 1–2, the odd one out) light up together and the names are said once more side by side. A wrong choice is "not yet: listen again", and the names are said again. Five rounds a play, drawn by the day from the cards that share a first sound; when the library has too few sounds in common for a round, the game says so and offers nothing to win.
The Pet
Notices the pair: "bed and basket, b, b!" Asks, when your child is stuck: it says the names again, slower, then glows the first of the two, then taps it with your child. Remembers a book: "the bee and the bird, both from the sunflower book". Dares one round of the next rung up.
By band
Pre-K: three pictures, two of them start with the same sound; your child taps the two. K: four pictures, two start the same. 1–2: four pictures, three start the same; your child taps the one that does not, and the names are written under the pictures, so a pair like cloud and kitten shows that one sound can be written two ways.
What it grows
Hearing the separate sounds in spoken words comes before reading them, and the first sound is where children start. Matching by sound, never by letter, keeps it honest about English spelling.
Done, and what counts as evidence
Done = five rounds. Nothing about wrong taps is kept or shown.
What's personal
The pictures are the stories your child has met, and each new book brings new sounds.