Find more free software        Use our fun, online software to teach early reading skills.
All Software and Maps Letter Sounds Learn Letters Bridge to Reading Maps that Teach

 Learning to Read


     Help children learn to read with our free interactive games and software.  Learning to read is the single most important part of your child’s education.

     Learning to read starts with learning the letters of the alphabet:

Alphabet Activities - Learn the ABCs with fun activities

Color Letters—Become familiar with the ABCs

Learn Letters—Learn to make the shapes of the letters of the alphabet in an interactive game  Now Online, no downloading!

     Once the child is familiar with the alphabet, learning to Read then requires knowing the sounds represented by the letters:

Letter Sounds—Learn the sounds of the alphabet:
     Letter Sounds—Consonants
     Letter Sounds—Long Vowels
     Letter Sounds—Short Vowels

     Letter Sounds—Blends; How letters combine to make sounds in words
     Letter Sounds—“S” Blends

     Next the child puts letters into words and words into sentences in a fairy tale adventure story.

Bridge to Reading—Learn to read 100 of the most common words
NOW ONLINE!

     Learning to read is an major accomplishment that opens up new worlds to your child.  The goal is for your child to learn to read so fluently that they do it without thinking about it, like riding a bike.  You learn to ride a bike in order to get somewhere;  you learn to read to find something out.  If learning the early skills is easy and fun, children will want to continue reading.

     Being familiar with the letters of the alphabet—both being able to name them and to write them when given the name—is fundamental to both reading and writing. The “pieces” of reading are the letters of the alphabet, initially as shapes with names, then as combinations of shapes that represent sounds.

     The beginning reader gains familiarity with letters and sounds, building to words and then sentences.  Fluent adult readers do not read letters or parts of words; we read phrases and sentences to get to the content of what we are reading.

     What is the best order in which to do the games?  Color Letters should come first, Learn Letters should come next, and then Letter Sounds.  However, it is not necessary to have “finished” Learn Letters to begin Letter Sounds, because Letter Sounds will further reinforce the meaningfulness of the letters themselves.  Letter Sounds should be done in order; consonant, vowels then blends.

In  Color Letters the student can color a letter and an animal, or object, whose names starts with that letter.  This program promotes familiarity with the letters of the alphabet, and the concept that the letters of the alphabet are associated with specific sounds.
 
Learn Letters teaches children to recognize the names and shapes of the lower-case letters in an interactive game.  Children learn the names and shapes of the letters putting them together with a computer mouse—good for children too young to handle a pencil easily.
 
Letter Sounds teaches the sounds of the consonants, long vowels, short vowels and blends in a series of interactive games.

     Letter Sounds—Consonants
     Letter Sounds—Long Vowels
     Letter Sounds—Short Vowels
     Letter Sounds—Blends
     Letter Sounds—“S” Blends

     Once children are reading they should not be “sounding out” every word.  If every word is a puzzle, there is no attention left for the meaning of what is being read.  In the sentence “Now you and I are going to see the  --------" the --------  could be acrobat, porpoise or gorilla.  Reading this should be automatic even for a beginning reader until the last word in the sentence.  This also allows for reading to be exciting.
     The “little” words—the 220 Dolch “service words” such as “the” “of” “one” “are”--make up 50% and more of our what we read.  These words also tend not to follow the phonetic rules, so must be learned by “sight”.

Bridge to Reading teaches over 100 of the most common sight words teaches over 100 of the most common sight words in an interactive fairy tale story.
 
     Some kids have been taught to read, so that their reading skills are at grade-level, but they dislike reading and only read when they have to.  Since they do not read for interest or pleasure, their reading does not improve.  It is important that learning to read is fun, and that it gives the child a sense of mastery, so that the student will want to read more.

 

 

More Free Educational Software from Owl and Mouse

 

Make a Town

 

Make a Village

 

 Make a Farm

 

Build your own Castle

 

Free Maps for Classroom Use

 

Make a Coat of Arms

 

 

 

 

E is for Elephant! Watercolor ABCs - Animal Alphabet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABCs - Animal Alphabet - H is for Hedgehog

 

U.S. Map Puzzle
     Learn the states of the United States and their capitals with this fun and educational puzzle game. How fast can you put all of the states in the right places? Free Software!

States and capitals of the U.S.


Learn to Read by Reading with:

 

Bridge to Reading


"When learning to read is fun, children read"
 

Beginning reading


We welcome all comments on your and your children's experience with our maps and software.  Any additional learning ideas will be added to our pages (with credit to you) for others to enjoy.

E-Mail us at:

Privacy Policy   -   Terms of Service

All Material Copyright 1998-2011 Owl and Mouse Educational Software

All pages and downloadable software may be freely used for individual and classroom instruction but may not be sold or redistributed.