How to teach your monster to read
How to teach your monster to read
Teach Your Monster To Read
The ground-breaking game that makes learning to read fun
About the game
Watch the Teach Your Monster to Read trailer
At home and school
Our games are designed to complement programmes used in schools.
Create a monster and take it on an adventure through a magical world.
Lots of blending, segmenting and tricky words.
Your monster travels to exciting places, meets fun characters, plays games and wins prizes as they learn the first steps of reading.
Three games that cover the first two years of learning to read. From matching letters and sounds to enjoying little books.
Minigames help children to develop speed and accuracy of letter and sound recognition.
Teach a monster today!
Reviews
John Hole, Phase 1 Leader, Wray Common Primary School
“This game is the absolute best quality phonics game I have come across for educational and fun value.”
Marie Lewis, Rochdale
“My class have reaped loads of benefits from using the programme and the difference in some of their reading skills has been dramatic.”
Maria Andrews, Foundation Phase Teacher
Download on Apple and Android devices today!
Award winning educational game for children
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Teach Your Monster To Read
The ground-breaking game that makes learning to read fun
About the game
Watch the Teach Your Monster to Read trailer
At home and school
Our games are designed to complement programmes used in schools.
Create a monster and take it on an adventure through a magical world.
Lots of blending, segmenting and tricky words.
Your monster travels to exciting places, meets fun characters, plays games and wins prizes as they learn the first steps of reading.
Three games that cover the first two years of learning to read. From matching letters and sounds to enjoying little books.
Minigames help children to develop speed and accuracy of letter and sound recognition.
Teach a monster today!
Reviews
John Hole, Phase 1 Leader, Wray Common Primary School
“This game is the absolute best quality phonics game I have come across for educational and fun value.”
Marie Lewis, Rochdale
“My class have reaped loads of benefits from using the programme and the difference in some of their reading skills has been dramatic.”
Maria Andrews, Foundation Phase Teacher
Download on Apple and Android devices today!
Award winning educational game for children
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Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies.
How is Teach Your Monster to Read Educational?
How do children learn from the game?
When learning to read and write, children have to learn to crack the alphabetic code which means understanding that the symbols on the page (letters) relate to sounds. In order to decode they need the skill of blending the sounds together when reading. When spelling, they need the skill of splitting the word into its sounds (segmenting) and representing these with letters.
Teach your Monster to Read: First Steps offers a wonderful opportunity for children to practise these skills. The game challenges them to explore a fictional world and to complete a series of enjoyable challenges.
These challenges offer many opportunities for the children to develop their listening skills as they match letters to sounds. The game also models the process of blending and provides opportunities for children to listen to words and practise segmenting.
Of course, reading is about far more than decoding. It is about pleasure and opening up whole new worlds for children as they immerse themselves in stories. Whilst the focus of this game is on phonics, its imaginative and engaging context offers an enjoyable and exciting adventure in which to practise new found skills learnt in school.
More about Systematic Synthetic Phonics
The teaching of phonics has featured in the primary curriculum for many years. The current government places huge importance on the necessity to teach children using ‘systematic synthetic phonics’ as the prime approach. The term ‘systematic’ refers to the fact that children should be taught the relationship between sounds and letters through a step-by-step scheme such as Letters and Sounds, a free resource produced by the previous government that is used in many schools. The term ‘synthetic’ refers to the process by which sounds are blended together when reading (synthesised).
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Using the app version in the classroom
The Teach Your Monster to Read app app has a login mode for players that you create in your teacher account. You can give your students their own player logins and your players can use these login credentials to log in to the app on any device, even when they’re at home.
The player login screen on the app looks like this:
How to set up app logins for players
Create a user account on our website, create some players, then use the player name and player password to login on the app. Here’s how:
1. Create a FREE teacher account. If you don’t have one already, create a FREE teacher account on our website.
2. Create your players. Each player will be given a player name and player password (use these player login credentials to log in on the app). You will only need a Star Code if you have switched off player passwords or created editable passwords in your account settings. You can find your Star Code on your my_account page.
3. Print player password cards for your students. You can get these from your my_account page on our website after you sign up for a user account. Print 2 copies (one for school and one for them to take home).
4. Download the app. Download the app to all the devices your children use.
5. Login on the app. Open the app and press the login button. Each child can use their player login details to play.
Already got a teacher account? Login to get your player names and passwords or create a new teacher account.
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Monster News
Did you know Teach Your Monster Reading for Fun is jam-packed with over 70 FREE books? Plus magazines and more from the Usborne range, as well as Okido, Otter-Barry and Teach Your Monster, too.
In Teach Your Monster: Reading For Fun, kids can earn books in return for completing tasks. Your child will love earning book rewards for completing a number of reading-focused tasks, activities and quests, such as following recipes, instructions, signposts and dialogue.
Every book collected can be added to a virtual bookshelf — available to pick up and read at any time! Below, we have included descriptions of some of the books on offer within the game.
Play Reading for Fun today: https://bit.ly/3p4Bbp4
FREE BEDTIME STORY BOOKS
FREE BOOKS OF POEMS
FREE BOOKS ABOUT ARTS AND CRAFTS
FREE EDUCATIONAL BOOKS
THOUGHT-PROVOKING FREE BOOKS
FREE BOOKS THAT ENCOURAGE FOCUS AND OBSERVATION
Which book has caught your eye? We’d love to hear your favourites, and do let us know if there are any books you’d like to see in the game!
The Best Math Apps for 4-5 Year-Olds
Mathematics can be a daunting subject for many. Skipping over the fundamentals as a child can mean a lifetime of struggles in this area, which is why it’s so important to build a solid base as early on as possible. Here, we list the best quality math-focused apps for early years learners. on Apple, Android, Amazon and web.
Teach Your Monster Number Skills
Designed in collaboration with experts in early years mathematics, this fun-filled game offers an exciting new way to practice numbers, using the unique Singapore Mathematics method.
Aligned with the Pre-K/Reception curriculum, Teach Your Monster Number Skills has 40 fun-filled levels designed to build a strong foundation in mathematics, and covers areas such as number bonds, subtraction, addition, counting and much more. A dashboard is also available for both parents and teachers to track progress.
Downside: It currently only features numbers up to five, with numbers up to ten coming very soon!
Price: Free on iOS, Android, Amazon, and PC and Mac
Math Makers
Designed for Reception-aged children, the award-winning Math Makers teaches kids a range of topics, including multiplication, division, fractions and counting, all through fun physics-focused games featuring hilarious, wacky characters. Kids will solve puzzles and carry out exciting challenges to achieve their goals.
Downside: A large number of puzzles require abstract thinking and logical reasoning and offer little to no help in solving them, which can cause frustration.
Price: Free on iOS and Android, includes in-app purchases.
Zap Zap Kindergarten Math
This is a great games-based numbers platform for home learning, to accompany children throughout their early mathematical education and is designed by experienced teachers, gamers and parents. There are over 150 mathematics lessons to practice, with a fully developed comprehensive curriculum that has been designed to mirror school Standards.
Downside: Because this game caters to a large range of abilities, it may not be suitable for everybody within its target demographic.
Price: £2.49. Available on iOS and Android
Vegetable Maths Masters
Characters give verbal feedback to encourage vegetable consumption (e.g., “yummy, I love broccoli”), meaning as well as learning numbers, kids will be encouraged to develop a love of veg!
Downside: Although offering variety, some might feel that the maths feels secondary.
Price: Free on iOS and Android
Elmo Loves 123s
Downside: Reviews claim that the image of Elmo only features in the introduction, with the remainder of the game only playing his voice, so kids might be disappointed!
Price: £4.49. Available on iOS and Android
Quick Math Jr.
All the essentials of mathematics are covered in this game, including counting, addition and subtraction, place value and writing numbers. Quick Math Jr learns as kids play, adjusting the difficulty of the questions to make sure each individual player is always at a level that is just right for them. The game features a total of twelve games, all aligned with international maths curricula, including US Common Core and the Australian National Curriculum.
Downside: Pricey, at a cost of £7.99
Price: £7.99. Available on iOS
Drive About Numbers
Available in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Russian, Drive About Numbers allows preschoolers to “drive”, “fly”, or “sail” around Number Neighbourhood, visiting familiar destinations while learning basic math skills and fine motor skills along the way, through verbal instruction.
This Parents’ Choice award-winning game created by educational game designers encourages free play, allowing kids to practice early numeracy at their own pace.
Downside: There is no clear ending to each game and no reward system upon completion.
Price: £2.49. Available on iOS
White Rose Maths: 1-Minute Maths
Designed to be used both at home and in the classroom, 1-Minute Maths helps pupils build greater number confidence and fluency, with targeted practice in engaging, one-minute chunks. After choosing a topic, users answer a series of randomly generated questions and when the one minute’s up, the questions are automatically marked and presented on a breakdown screen, giving instant feedback on how they’ve done. There are a total of 41 topics with hints available when needed.
Downside: Visually, some may find this game isn’t as exciting as others on offer
Price: Free on iOS, Android, and Amazon
Splash Learn
An immersive game with a massive 4000+ library of content to practice, covering over 400 curriculum-aligned maths areas. There are personalised daily learning plans, exciting rewards and narrative-driven games to keep early years learning fun. A real-time progress dashboard offers easy tracking for both parents and teachers.
Downside: Some of the games may feel a little too challenging
Price: Free on iOS, Android and web. Includes in-app purchases
Todo Maths
This inclusive and accessible maths app has reached #1 in the Apple App Store in over 20 countries. It covers all the fundamentals of early maths education, including multiplication, subtraction, counting and number concepts. Clocks and calendars also assist children in learning how to tell the time and the days of the week.
Downside: The drag-and-drop and write-in-your-answer options might be tricky to manoeuvre, and some trace numbers, if not written clearly, will not be recognised.
Price: Free to try on Android and iOS, then a range of subscription prices
The Best Reading Apps for 4-5 Year Olds
Designed alongside experts, Duolingo ABC offers a number of interactive stories and 700 bite-sized reading lessons, to help preschoolers build reading fluency over time. Fun imagery and highlighted words assist children in reading independently, and rewards keep kids motivated to learn, whilst building confidence.
Downside: Children are unable to select a starting point, which can be tedious for those who might already be a bit more advanced.
Price: Free on iOS
Homer
Downside: There’s an emphasis on alphabet and phonics but with little attention to comprehension.
Teach Your Monster to Read
Downside: Some may find games a little repetitive.
Price: £4.99 on iOS, Amazon and Android. Free on PC and Mac
Teach Your Monster Reading for Fun
Downside: Some children may be frustrated by the need to complete challenges to win their books
Price: Free on iOS, PC and Mac
Epic!
Epic! Offers an unlimited library of over 40,000 books for children to access, from respected publishers such as harperCollins and Scholastic. In-app progress tracking and weekly progress emails help teachers and parents keep an eye on development, and badges and rewards encourage learners to keep motivated. There are two subscriptions to pick from, each one tailored either to families or to educators, and each one allows for a number of profiles.
Downside: Watch out for subscription auto-renewals. Also, the game is not available on Amazon devices.
Hooked on Phonics
Ideal for preschool and kindergarten-aged children, hooked on phonics is designed with the help of childhood education experts and utilises cutting-edge research to assist learners in working on areas that they may be struggling in. There are over 250 songs, award-winning videos, interactive games, reading lessons and e-books on offer and parents will have an insight into progression thanks to reporting features.
Downside: The game focuses on repetition to ingrain ideas but some children may find this a little boring.
Meet the Alphablocks!
Designed by the BAFTA award-winning team at Alphablocks Ltd, Meet the Alphablocks is a spin-off from the popular hit TV show as seen on Cbeebies. This fun game helps children learn letter sounds and names, using best-practice phonics as taught in UK schools. Conveniently, videos are available both to stream and download for when you’re out and about.
Downside: Some reviews suggest that a number of games are difficult to find within the app
Price: Free on iOS, Android, and Amazon
Used by over 20 million children across thousands of schools, this award-winning app features alphabet games, spelling games, phonics activities, word puzzles, nursery rhymes and over 3,000 story books for kids.
Five essential components of reading are covered: Phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension, and much like the other great educational apps we’ve mentioned so far, a reward system motivates children to keep going!
Downside: Design feels a little outdated and a subscription is required
Price: Available on iOS, Android, PC and Mac. 30 days free and then £6.99 per month
Bob Books Reading Magic
Reading magic brings the best-selling Bob Books to life, with a phonics-based reading game featuring a simple drag-and-drop interface. Bob Books characters and full-color animations encourage kids along the path of learning to read and children will master a number of skills, including making the connection between letters and sounds, sounding out simple words, and spelling words that they’ve read. The game includes twelve scenes for a total of 32 words. Four game levels provide increasing learn-to-read challenges for children as they play.
Downside: Unavailable on Android
Price: £2.99 on iOS
Scholastic F.I.R.S.T (An adventure on Ooka Island)
Ooka Island transforms teaching foundational reading skills by breaking the process down into thousands of micro-actions — 6,695 to be exact. With a robust methodology and highly adaptive technology, this game personalises each student’s path toward fluent reading.
Built on Dr. Kay MacPhee’s proven, research-based concepts, Ooka Island leads with securing children’s phonemic awareness while teaching phonological skills to ensure reading words becomes as effortless as speaking, so that students can focus on comprehension.
Downside: Some reviews state that they had issues with in-game glitches
Price: Free on iOS and Android
Welcome to our new website and the world of “Teach Your Monster”
You may have noticed that we have a new look!
A new website and a slightly different name
When we launched Teach Your Monster To Read over 8 years ago, we had a mission to improve the literacy of young children with a game that was both super-fun and designed to meet stringent standards by educational experts.
Now, over 2 million children per month play our games on our website and apps for iOS, Android and Amazon.
It’s been quite a journey!
And for 8 years, being known as “Teach Your Monster To Read” has suited us just fine.
Along came Reading for Fun and Number Skills!
While remaining true to our core mission as a non-profit charitable foundation, we want to make more games across different areas of learning.
Whether those games are focused on literacy, mathematics or other topics, we’ve built a wealth of experience and know-how to allow us to make magical, fun-filled games focusing on other areas of childrens’ education and well-being.
So welcome to the world, Teach Your Monster!
Welcome to our new world!
Please take a look around and let us know what you think at [email protected]
Your monster is back! It’s time to get Reading for Fun!
Designed by the creators of Teach Your Monster to Read in collaboration with educational experts from Roehampton University, Teach Your Monster: Reading for Fun gets children reading more, boosts their confidence and inspires a lifelong love of reading!
Your Monster is back again! This time there is a huge, magical new world to explore full of fascinating facts and amazing stories. Help the villagers with their jobs to earn over 70 incredible real-life books to put on your monster’s bookshelf. Some of these books will even help you bake cakes, find treasure and make the villagers laugh and giggle.
Trouble is never far away though. Your monster will need to use all its wisdom, skills and bravery to stop the book-eating goblin causing chaos in the village and eating all the books!
To play the beta (early test version) of Reading for Fun today, login at teachyourmonstertoread.com.
To hear when the app version goes live later this year, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
We have two special treats for you this week!
Get your free app and spooky colouring treat this Halloween!
Have a fa-boo-lous time making your monster’s world a little more colourful, with this spooky printable colouring poster!
Download your free colouring poster
Then get the BAFTA-nominated series of games completely free for a very limited time!
Teach Your Monster to Read is always free to play on laptops and PCs via the website, and the app is also completely free for a very limited time. Download for free and there’s nothing to pay, even after the free promotion ends.
Do you want to play on multiple devices? If so, then you’ll either need player login details (which you can get from a teacher if the game is used in school) or you’ll need to set your own account up.
Ready to go on an adventure? Download Teach Your Monster to Read from your app store today!
Google Play Store
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Amazon CA
Apple app store
or point an iPhone / iPad camera at this QR code to download from the app store.
Want to help the Usborne Foundation? As a charity, we need your support to spread the word about our award-winning educational games. We’d really appreciate it if you could let people know how beneficial our games have been for you.
You could send a message like this:
We use #TeachYourMonster to help kids learn to read. The app is free from Fri Oct 23 for a very limited time on Apple apple.co/2V92VL5, Amazon amzn.to/2VgOwfR & Google bit.ly/2cohkeR @monsterscanread. Get a free account at teachyourmonstertoread.com
The Teach Your Monster team
The Usborne Foundation celebrates online reading game reaching more than 20 million children worldwide
PLUS: PLANS REVEALED FOR LAUNCH OF NEW GAME THIS YEAR!
Charitable organisation, The Usborne Foundation, announces that Teach Your Monster to Read, a series of three free online reading games to help young learners further develop their reading skills, has reached more than 20 million children worldwide and has been played 200 million times!
With children across the world learning at home due to Covid-19, and parents looking for additional resources to support home learning and encourage children to read during the lockdown, Teach Your Monster to Read has attracted record levels of users since the outbreak.
Peter Usborne MBE, who established The Usborne Foundation, and is founder of world-renowned Usborne Publishing, said, “Since its launch in 2012, our Teach Your Monster to Read series of games have proved incredibly popular with children, parents and schools; helping young learners to further develop their reading skills. Today the game has reached a staggering 20 million children worldwide, and has over 200 million plays; an incredible milestone for our team to celebrate.
Peter Usborne MBE with his daughter, Nicola Usborne (MD of Usborne Publishing)
Digital resources that support home-learning play an important role in a child’s education, and Teach Your Monster To Read is a fun and exciting way for children at different reading levels to learn, whilst also helping parents and schools during these unprecedented times; it is a very successful formula. The significant uplift in users during the pandemic shows our love for reading is stronger than ever.”
The game series currently includes Teach Your Monster to Read: First Steps; Teach Your Monster to Read: Fun with Words; and Teach Your Monster to Read 3: Champion Reader.
A ground-breaking new game, Teach Monster: Reading for Fun is currently being worked on by the team.
A brand new game (currently in development) will enable children to meet wonderful new characters, explore a brand new magical world, and earn entire books that they can read anytime and keep on their monster’s bookshelf. Every child will have the chance to create their own free library with more than 50 books available to collect, read, and listen to. The goal is to ignite a lifelong love of reading and make books accessible to every child.
Play in a world of reading and books
Visit Goldspear in the village library and browse the bookshelves for your next book
Collect books for your monster’s bookshelf. Read along with villagers and help them solve mysteries
Simple steps to get kids playing ‘Teach Your Monster to Read’ at home.
As a result of school closures and disruption due to coronavirus, we’ll make Teach Your Monster to Read completely free across the world, in order to help children learn to read whilst at home.
We want to help out as much as we can, so we’ve made Teach Your Monster to Read completely free until Monday March 23rd on Apple (today) and Amazon (from Thursday) as well as at teachyourmonstertoread.com. It’s also just 0.99 on Google Play Store*.
This means if anyone downloads it to their device for free this week, it will cost them nothing and it will be free to continue to use on that device thereafter.
It’s easy to get kids playing at home. There are 2 ways:
1) If you don’t want to track students’ progress:
Simply share this page with parents. Kids can then get playing straight away, with no passwords required.
You could post this message to parents:«We use Teach Monster to help kids learn to read in school and it’s been made free to use at home due to coronavirus disruption. Download free this week on Apple: apple.co/2V92VL5, on Amazon (from Thurs) https://amzn.to/2VgOwfR, or 0.99 on Android: bit.ly/2cohkeR»
2) If you want to track students’ progress:
Login or sign up at teachyourmonstertoread.com. Set up every child as a player on our website. Print off and send home their password cards (which can be downloaded from your dashboard). Kids can then log in to their player accounts on our website or app. You can see their progress on your dashboard.
Download links here:
Apple app store
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Google Play Store
Teach Your Monster to Read FREE across the world, to ease school-closure disruption due to Coronavirus (NOW ENDED)
As a result of school closures and disruption due to coronavirus, we have decided to make Teach Your Monster to Read completely free across the world, in order to help children learn to read whilst at home.
Our award-winning phonics and reading games have been played over 160 million times and are used by thousands of teachers as part of their phonics and literacy education.
The app has recently been approved by the UK Department for Education’s Hungry Little Minds campaign to help parents find high quality educational apps for kids.
With children learning from home due to school closures and self-isolation cases, as a not-for-profit, we want to do what we can to mitigate the disruption and help children continue learning. Millions of children use the app every month and we want to make sure every child can access it at home.
Download links here:
Apple app store
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Google Play Store
Version 3.5 is live, easier to hear and better on iPhone X
Hold your monsters! Version 3.5 of Teach Your Monster to Read has now been released on all app stores and we’ve got some lovely little improvements in here, along with some ‘quality of life’ updates.
Words are now easier to hear
Collectable stars can now be transferred between games
Previously a player couldn’t carry their stars from the second game ‘Fun with words’ to the third game ‘Champion Reader’. But now, any player who conscientiously saves their stars, can rightly carry them into ‘Champion Reader’. So whether you save them up or spend them in the shop, your stars are always yours to use as you please.
The game is now full screen on iPhone X
The game now looks better on iPhone X and makes use of every pixel.
Help messages have been made clearer
and, well. a bit more helpful. Enough said, really.
We love to read your success stories and we want to know what you’d like added to the game, so please leave a review. As a charity with a mission to improve children’s literacy, we want to make this game as great as it can possibly be.
We dedicate version 3.5 to everyone who has left us a review over the past year asking for the audio to be easier to hear. We’ve been listening (excuse the pun) and ramped up the quality and volume of the words and phonemes so your little ones can hear them better.
Do you like this release? Want to see more? Let us know.
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