Reading · Kindergarten to Grade 3–4
Spell it
Your child spells the names of things from their own storybooks, one letter at a time.
A picture, a row of empty boxes and some letter tiles. Your child taps the letters in order; a wrong one wiggles and stays out, and the Pet says the word again, slowly.
- Kindergarten to Grade 3–4
- 5 min
- Nothing to prepare
- On the screen
Free to sign up.
Is it a good fit?
- Ready if Your child knows most letter names and can hear the first sound of a word.
- Too much today? The K level: three-letter words, with the first letter already there.
- Too easy? The Grade 3–4 level: words up to eight letters, with extra tiles that do not belong.
What your child practises
- Hearing each sound in a word
- Matching sounds to letters
- Spelling short words
“Kitten has two t's!”
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 word slowly together when it is a hard one
- Write the four words on paper at the end
Take it off the screen (optional)
Write each word on a strip of paper, cut it into letters, mix them up, and build the word again.
More like this
The full design
What it is
A picture from your child's storybooks, the kitten or the pot, and under it a row of empty boxes, one for each letter of its name. Below them lie the letter tiles. Your child spells the name by tapping the letters in order, and each one drops into its box. When the word is whole it is read aloud. The words are the nouns of the books your family reads, so a word spelled here is met again on the page.
How it goes
Your child taps a tile. If it is the next letter, it drops into the next box with a soft click; if not, the tile wiggles, stays where it was, and the Pet says the word again, slowly. Nothing wrong ever sits in a box. A finished word is read aloud and stays on screen for a moment with its picture. Four words a play, drawn by the day from the cards whose names fit the rung, never the same word twice in a day; fewer when the library holds fewer (today K has three: bed, pot, bee), and a library with under two says so and offers nothing to win.
The Pet
Notices the word when it is whole: "p, o, t: pot!" Asks, when your child is stuck: it says the word slowly, then glows the next tile, then taps it with your child. Remembers the book the picture came from, when your child has finished it: "the pot from the sunflower book". Dares one longer word, the next rung up.
By band
K: three-letter words (bed, pot, bee), the first letter already in its box, and the tiles are only the word's own letters. 1–2: words of three to five letters, every box empty, the tiles the word's letters and one more. 3–4: words up to eight letters, two more tiles than the word needs. A name of two words (watering can) is never a spelling word. 5–6 and 7–8 play the 3–4 rung; spelling in a family language is Name it's (slice D), with a helper.
What it grows
Children remember how a word is spelled by linking its sounds to its letters, and they learn it best with words they already know and use. A thing from a story they love is such a word.
Done, and what counts as evidence
Done = every word of the play spelled. How many tiles wiggled is not kept or shown. The four words are listed at the end, to write on paper together.
What's personal
Every word is a thing from a story your child has read or heard, and as your family reads more books, there are more words.