Spell the Picture

Spell the picture! Put the letter tiles in the tray. Cards for ages 3 to 8.

How hard?
For grown-ups

Your child sees a picture and spells its word with letter tiles: tap a tile, or drag it into the tray. Vowels are red and the other letters are blue. Each letter is said out loud, then the whole word. A wrong letter just settles back; there is no losing, no timer and nothing to collect. A round is 5 words, then it stops.

Child lock: tap the lock at the top right. The ways out hide and the back button stays in the game. To unlock, hold the lock for 3 seconds and answer a sum.

Pick your child's age first. 3: short words like cat and sun. 4: blends like frog and nest, plus first sight words. 5: sh, ch, th and ng words, plus more sight words. 6: long vowels like cake, kite and boat. 7 to 8: bigger words like rabbit, pencil and star. Sight words have no picture: your child hears the word (tap the ear) and spells it.

Easy gives the letters in order and shows the word to match. Mix mixes the letters up. Tricky adds two extra letters and hides the word, so your child sounds it out from the picture (tap the picture to hear it).

The voice says each letter's
Evening look (dimmer and warmer)

Why it's good for your child, what they learn, and how we designed it

Free, no ads, no sign-in. We count plays without names or anything that identifies your child, and nothing is recorded. Pictures: Microsoft Fluent Emoji (MIT license).

CVC words with pictures

CVC words are short words built consonant, vowel, consonant, like cat, pig and sun. They are the first words most children learn to read and spell in preschool and kindergarten. Age 3 has 100 picture cards: short a, e, i, o and u words, some 4-letter words, and a few more everyday words. Older children move on to blends (frog, nest), sh, ch and th words (ship, chick, tooth), long vowels (cake, kite, boat), sight words, and two-syllable words (rabbit, pencil).

See every word, by age

Age 3: First words

Short a: cat, hat, bat, rat, map, cap, van, fan, pan, can, bag, ram, dad, cab, nap, gas, tag, sad, zap, yam

Short e: bed, pen, hen, net, jet, web, leg, egg, ten, red, wet, gem

Short i: pig, bin, pin, lip, six, kid, win, sit

Short o: dog, log, pot, box, fox, hot, mom, cop, rod, hog, cog, pod, ox

Short u: sun, bus, cup, bug, mug, hug, nut, pup, tub, cub, hut, run, cut, up

4 letters: bell, doll, frog, crab, flag, sled, ship, fish, milk, nest, tent, hand, gift, plug, duck, drum, sock, rock, lock

More words: ant, owl, cow, pie, key, bee, car, eye, ear, toy, boy, tie, saw, ice

Age 4: Blends

Blends first: frog, crab, flag, sled, drum, plug, dress, glass, skunk, skis, stop, truck, brick, clock, trap, drip, plus, grin, clap, swim

Blends last: nest, tent, hand, gift, milk, mask, lamp, camp, plant, vest, wind, melt, pink, bank, sand, golf, elf

ss, ll, ck: bell, doll, kiss, pill, duck, sock, rock, lock, pack

Sight words: and, away, big, blue, can, come, down, find, for, funny, go, help, here, in, is, it, jump, little, look, make, me, my, not, one, play, red, run, said, see, the, three, to, two, up, we, where, yellow, you

Age 5: sh, ch, th

sh: ship, fish, shell, shirt, shoe, sheep, shark, shorts, brush, cash, trash, shower, shop

ch: chick, chips, chair, cheese, cherry, chess, lunch, peach, watch, church, chain, check

th, wh: three, thumb, tooth, bath, math, think, thread, mouth, feather, whale, wheel, white

ng, nk: ring, king, wing, sing, song, drink, lung

Sight words: all, am, are, at, ate, be, black, brown, but, came, did, do, eat, four, get, good, have, he, into, like, must, new, no, now, on, our, out, please, pretty, ran, ride, saw, say, she, so, soon, that, there, they, this, too, under, want, was, well, went, what, who, will, with, yes

Age 6: Long vowels

a_e: cake, snake, grapes, skate, plane, wave, face, game

i_e: kite, bike, dice, rice, slide, five, nine, smile, lime, pine, fire

o_e, u_e: rose, cone, bone, nose, globe, home, rope, phone, note, cube, flute, tube

ee, ea: tree, feet, seal, leaf, beach, tea, jeans, beans, green, sleep, meat

ai, oa, ow: rain, snail, train, mail, paint, boat, goat, soap, road, coat, snow, bow, bowl

oo: moon, spoon, broom, boot, food, school, goose

Sight words: after, again, an, any, as, ask, by, could, every, fly, from, give, going, had, has, her, him, his, how, just, know, let, may, of, old, once, open, over, put, round, some, take, thank, them, then, walk, were, when

Age 7 to 8: Big words

Bossy r: star, corn, horse, fork, bird, girl, turtle, purse, jar, arm, yarn, card, storm, burger, dart, scarf

Animals: rabbit, monkey, dragon, penguin, tiger, zebra, spider, donkey, turkey, parrot, camel, lizard, hamster, panda, koala, giraffe, kangaroo, dolphin, flamingo, peacock, unicorn, octopus, elephant, raccoon, beaver, gorilla, chipmunk, hedgehog, otter

Food: carrot, apple, banana, lemon, melon, cupcake, cookie, candy, pizza, taco, pretzel, waffle, onion, tomato, potato, popcorn, sandwich, pancakes, avocado, broccoli, mango

Things: pencil, rocket, robot, snowman, rainbow, candle, castle, ladder, hammer, magnet, basket, bucket, ribbon, balloon, window, cactus, tulip, mushroom, volcano, tractor, helmet, trumpet, violin, backpack, planet, teapot, compass, anchor, bubbles, crayon, scissors, umbrella, guitar, pumpkin

Why it's good for your child

Spelling a word from its picture joins what a letter looks like, the sound it makes, and how sounds build a word from left to right. The game keeps it to one word on a plain screen, says every letter out loud, and stops after 5 words. That is the active, meaningful kind of screen time research links to learning (Hirsh-Pasek 2015), and the line on the "All done" screen gets you talking about the words together, which helps most (AAP, Zero to Three).

What they learn

Letter names and the sounds in short words, then spelling them by sound: cat, pig, sun (Common Core RF.K.2.d, RF.K.3.a and L.K.2.d). Short and long vowel spellings like cap and cape (RF.K.3.b, RF.1.3.c), and digraphs like sh, ch and th (RF.1.3.a). Dolch sight words by ear (RF.K.3.c), and at 7 and 8, longer words broken into syllables (RF.1.3.e).

How we designed it for ages 3 to 8

Motion is slow and smooth, one thing at a time, and nothing loops: 9 minutes of a fast cartoon lowered 4-year-olds' attention and self-control right after (Lillard & Peterson 2011). There is no background music, only one clear voice that says every letter and word, so children who can't read yet can play, because background music and sound effects hurt word learning (Bus, Takacs & Kegel 2015). Rounds are 5 words and end on "All done", with nothing to collect or count and no "one more" prompt (65% of apps for 3 to 5 year olds used tricks to lengthen play, Radesky 2022); praise names what your child did (Mueller & Dweck 1998). Age 3 starts with 3-letter words in order, tiles are big enough to tap or drag (precise dragging is hard under 5, Hiniker 2015), mistakes slide back with no buzzer, and the Child lock keeps leaving and settings with you.

About the game

Spell the Picture is a free picture spelling game. Your child sees a picture, puts the letter tiles in the tray in order, and hears the word. Each letter is said as it lands, then the whole word, then a line of praise that names what your child did ("You spelled cat!"). It builds letter knowledge, the link between sounds and letters, and left-to-right spelling: the steps that lead to reading.

Vowels are red and the other letters are blue, like classroom letter tiles, so children see where the vowel sits in every word.

Ages and word lists

There are 479 cards in 5 decks, one per age, in the order most schools teach:

How a round goes

Pick an age and how hard. Easy gives the letters in order with faint letters in the tray. Mix mixes them up. Tricky hides the word and adds two extra letters, so your child sounds it out from the picture. A round is 5 words. Then the game stops on "All done" with a line for you to talk about together, and the next round waits for a tap.

Before you hand over the phone, tap the lock at the top right. The ways out hide and the back button stays in the game. To unlock, hold the lock for 3 seconds and answer a sum. More: phonics games in order, all spelling games, how we build calm games.

Questions parents ask

Is Spell the Picture free?

Yes. There is no sign-in, nothing to download and nothing to buy inside the game. It runs in the web browser on phones, tablets and computers.

What ages is it for?

Ages 3 to 8. There are 5 decks: age 3 (100 first words like cat and sun), age 4 (84 cards with blends and pre-primer sight words), age 5 (95 cards with sh, ch and th words and primer sight words), age 6 (100 cards with long vowels and first grade sight words) and ages 7 to 8 (100 big words).

Does my child need to read?

No. Each card shows a picture and the voice says the word and every letter, so a child can spell by listening and matching. Sight words have no picture: the child taps the ear to hear the word.

What happens when my child picks the wrong letter?

The letter is said out loud and the tile settles back. There is no buzzer, no losing and no timer. After a pause or two tries, a still ring shows the right tile.

How long is a round?

5 words, then the game stops on an All done screen with a line for you to talk about together. Nothing starts by itself.