How to play the phonics blending game
Fred's Sound Box is a blending game, not a letter-naming quiz. A word is shown as a row of letter tiles - one tile per sound, so "fish" is three tiles, f, i and sh, not four letters. Tapping a tile plays that sound on its own. Once every tile has been heard, the "Say the word" button lights up, plays the whole word, and two or three pictures appear. The child picks the picture that matches the word they just blended.
Until every tile has been tapped the button stays greyed out and reads "Tap every letter first". That is deliberate: it stops a child skipping straight to guessing from the pictures, which is the usual way blending practice quietly turns into a picture-matching exercise.
Controls
- Touchscreen or mouse: everything is a tap or a click. Tap a letter tile to hear its sound, tap it again to hear it again, then tap a picture to answer. Nothing needs a keyboard, dragging or a steady double-click.
- Phase 1 sets: there are no tiles at all. The sounds are read out one at a time, then the whole word, and a replay button plays them again as many times as the child wants.
- Split digraphs in Phase 5:the silent e tile says "silent e" rather than a sound, and the vowel tile plays its long sound, so "cake" sounds the way it is taught.
Choosing a phase and a set
Choose the sounds you want to practise, then select a set. The five phase labels organise this game; they do not guarantee a match to a school's current week or programme. Each phase shows completed sets. Ask the learner's teacher which sounds and words to use.
Open a set to check its words and settings. Sound starts after you choose Start practice.
Phase 1: Listening games before letters. Hear the sounds in a word - /d/ /o/ /g/ - and find the picture.
- Oral blending — Listen & pick
Words include dog, cat, fish, duck.
Phase 2: First 19 single-letter sounds plus ck / ff / ll / ss, in five weekly sets.
- Set 1 — s a t p
Words include sat, pat, tap.
- Set 2 — i n m d
Words include sit, pin, tin, nap.
- Set 3 — g o c k
Words include dog, log, cat, cot.
- Set 4 — ck e u r
Words include duck, sock, bed, hen.
- Set 5 — h b f l ff ll ss
Words include hat, hop, bat, bus.
Phase 3: Sets 6–7, then consonant and vowel digraphs/trigraphs.
- Set 6 — j v w x
Words include jam, jog, jet, van.
- Set 7 — y z zz qu
Words include yes, yum, zip, zap.
- Consonant digraphs — ch sh th ng nk
Words include ship, fish, chop, chip.
- Long vowels 1 — ai ee igh
Words include rain, train, week, feet.
- Long vowels 2 — oa oo oo
Words include boat, goat, book, foot.
- Long vowels 3 — ar or ur
Words include car, star, fork, corn.
- Long vowels 4 — ow oi
Words include cow, owl, coin, oil.
- Long vowels 5 — ear air er
Words include ear, beard, chair, hair.
Phase 4: No new letter sounds. Practice blending longer words with adjacent consonants (CVCC, CCVC) and two-syllable words.
- CVCC words — help · jump · hand
Words include lamp, jump, tent, hand.
- CCVC words — frog · plum · flag
Words include frog, crab, drum, step.
- Longer words — stamp · plant · twist
Words include skunk, plant, print, twist.
- Two-syllable words — sunset · rabbit · laptop
Words include sunset, picnic, rabbit, magnet.
Phase 5: New spellings for sounds children already know, including the magic-e split digraphs.
- Split digraph a_e — cake · name · gate
Words include cake, name, game, grape.
- Split digraph i_e — bike · time · kite
Words include bike, time, five, kite.
- Split digraphs o_e u_e e_e — home · tune · Pete
Words include home, bone, rope, tune.
- ay · ou — play · cloud
Words include play, day, tray, out.
- ie · ea — tie · beach
Words include tie, pie, eat, beach.
- oy · ir — boy · bird
Words include boy, toy, girl, bird.
- ue · aw — blue · saw
Words include blue, glue, saw, paw.
- wh · ph · ew — when · phone · new
Words include when, phone, photo, stew.
- oe · au · ey — toe · Paul · they
Words include toe, grey, they.
For example, this game places j, v, w and x in Phase 3. The published Little Wandle programme overview places them in Phase 2. Use the actual set contents rather than treating the phase number as an exact programme match. The Department for Education reading framework explains the importance of fidelity to a school's phonics programme.
Inside a phase, every set shows what it is working on, the new graphemes it introduces as small chips, and the set's tricky words. There are 27 sets in total, from the single oral blending set in Phase 1 through to the alternative spellings at the end of Phase 5. The phase and set you last started are remembered in this browser. On the phase screen, choose Return to check that set and its settings before starting a fresh six-word round. Individual answers are not saved. A direct set link takes priority over the last set; earned stickers remain.
- Review earlier sets:on by default. Mixes in words from earlier sets in the same phase, filtered so they only use graphemes in the game's selected set sequence.
- Easy (2 pictures): also on by default. Turning it off gives three pictures to choose from instead of two.
Stickers
Blending a word correctly counts towards four cumulative stickers that carry over between sessions: First Word, then Word Builder at ten words, Sound Star at thirty and Reading Ready at a hundred. Separately, clearing a set - six correct picks - earns that set's own Sound Box Sets sticker, and the set is marked Done in the picker. Stickers record completed play, not a reading assessment.
What it practises
The skill being drilled is blending: holding two, three or four separate sounds in mind and pushing them together into a word. Hearing each sound in isolation and then immediately hearing the blended word gives the child both halves of that job in the right order, and choosing a picture forces them to decide what the word actually means rather than just saying it.
Word selection uses this game's cumulative grapheme lists. That cannot tell us which sounds an individual learner has already been taught. Check the displayed set contents before starting, and choose an earlier or different set whenever it is useful.
Who this phonics game is for
It is built for 1:1 phonics practice with a child who needs the pressure taken out: children with SEND, children in speech and language therapy, and children in Reception or Year 1 who are keeping up in class but need extra repetitions. Everything is tappable, nothing is timed, and no score is kept, so a session can stop at any point without a run being lost.
Preview the complete activity with the learner's device and input setup before shared play. A partner can operate the buttons while the learner points or chooses. This is additional blending practice, not a complete phonics teaching programme or a therapy assessment.
About the audio
The sounds, words and prompts use pre-generated synthesised speech clips. They are not recordings supplied by a named phonics programme. Replay a sound and word before a shared session to check pronunciation and volume against the model the learner uses. No microphone or spoken answer is required.
Questions parents and tutors ask
Which sounds can we practise?
Phase 1 offers oral blending. Phase 2 offers early letter sounds; Phase 3 adds further letter sounds, digraphs and long vowels. Phase 4 includes adjacent consonants and longer words; Phase 5 includes alternative spellings and split digraphs. The set contents above show this game's grouping, rather than a complete programme sequence.
Can my child meet sounds they have not been taught yet?
Yes, if the chosen set includes sounds the learner has not met. The game knows its own set sequence, not the child's teaching history. Check the displayed sounds with their teacher before choosing a set.
Is there a way to make it easier for a child who gets upset by mistakes?
Yes. Two-picture mode is on by default, and a wrong pick never ends the round - the game asks the child to listen again and returns to the same choice. There is no timer, no score and no fail screen.
Is it free?
Yes. It is free to play with no signup, no download and no in-game purchases. It was built by a UK SEND tutor with QTS. Optional analytics depend on your cookie choice; see our cookie information.
For editable letter-building and recorded whole-word practice, try Spelling Workshop. Its Year 1 and Year 2 example lists save separately.
Match capital and lowercase forms, order letters or complete an alphabet segment in Alphabet Workshop. Letter-name recordings are optional; they are different from phonics sounds.