Reading Levels

The starting level. Children read simple CVC (consonant–vowel–consonant) and VC (vowel–consonant) words using just the two most distinct short vowels, a and i.

Adds short o and short u, building on a and i — still simple CVC and VC words.

Completes the five short vowels by adding the trickiest one, e, plus FLOSS words (a short vowel followed by a doubled f, l, s, or z).

Introduces the first consonant digraphs — two letters that make one sound. The digraph can appear at the beginning or end of the word.

Adds th and wh to the allowed digraph set. Children now handle four consonant digraphs.

Completes the consonant digraph set with ck and ng. Mixed review of all digraphs learned so far.

The first blends arrive — two consonants at the start of a word where both sounds are heard. This level covers l-blends and r-blends.

Adds initial s-blends and tw-blend to the mix. Children now handle all two-letter beginning blends.

Introduces three-letter beginning blends — the trickiest consonant clusters for early readers.

Introduces ending consonant blends, starting with the most common N-family. Words can now combine beginning blends or digraphs with ending blends.

Adding ending S-family blends to the mix.

Adding ending L-family blends.

Completes the ending blends set. Every one-syllable short-vowel word with consonant blends can now be sounded out.

Introduces the magic-e (silent-e) pattern — a final e makes the vowel before it say its name. Starting with the long “a” sound, as in cake.

Adds the long “i” silent-e pattern, as in bike. Children can now read both a_e words (cake) and i_e words (bike).

Adds the long “o” silent-e pattern, as in home. Three vowel patterns can now be sounded out.

Completes the silent-e set. Adds both the long “u” pattern (cube, tune) and the rarer long “e” pattern (theme). All five silent-e vowels can now be sounded out. Most long-e words come from vowel teams in a later level, so e_e words are intentionally few.

Introduces the ph digraph — two letters that make the /f/ sound, as in phone. It sits here (after silent-e) so its key words are readable the day it unlocks: phone needs o_e, phase needs a_e.

Introduces the first vowel teams — two or more vowels that work together to make one vowel sound. Starting with AI, AY, EIGH, and EY for the long “a” sound, as in rain.

Adds the EE and EA vowel teams for the long “e” sound, as in tree. Children now handle two vowel-team pairs.

Adds the OA, OW, and OO vowel teams. OA and OW make the long “o” sound (as in boat); OO makes the long “oo” sound as in moon, or the short “oo” sound as in book.

Completes the vowel team set with IGH and IE for the long “i” sound (as in night), plus EW, UE, and UI for the “oo” sound (as in new). All vowel teams can now be sounded out.

Y steps in as a vowel. At the end of a short word with no other vowel, y says the long “i” sound — fly, sky, try, why.

Introduces the first r-controlled vowel — often called “bossy R,” because the R changes the sound of the vowel in front of it. When A is followed by R, the two make the “ar” sound, as in car.

Adds the “or” pattern — another bossy-R sound, as in for.

Introduces the “er” pattern — the “er” sound, as in her.

Completes the “er”-sound group with “ir” and “ur.” Three different spellings — er, ir, and ur — all make the very same “er” sound (her, bird, fur).

Completes the r-controlled vowels with the “air” and “are” patterns — both make the “air” sound, as in chair and care.

Completes the bossy-R family. EAR and EER make the “ear” sound, as in hear and deer; URE makes the “ure” sound, as in pure.

Introduces diphthongs — gliding vowel sounds where the mouth slides from one sound into another, like the “oy” in boy or the “ow” in cow.

Completes the gliding-vowel set (Levels 30–31) with the AU and AW teams — the “aw” sound, as in saw.

Introduces the soft sound of C and G — when C or G is followed by E, I, or Y, it makes a softer sound.

Introduces two three-letter spellings that come right after a short vowel: -tch (says “ch”) and -dge (says “j”).

Introduces words with a silent consonant — a letter you can see but don’t say, like the k in knee or the b in lamb.

The first multi-syllable level. Children learn to split a two-syllable word into two parts and read each part in turn.

Introduces open syllables where the syllable ends in a vowel and the vowel says its long sound.

Y as a vowel returns: at the end of a longer word, y says the long “e” sound — happy, baby, funny. The final y works like an open syllable spelled with y.

Adds magic-e (silent-e) parts inside longer words.

Adds vowel team syllables in multisyllable words.

Adds r-controlled syllables in multisyllable words.

Introduces consonant-le syllables. All six syllable types are now permanently unlocked.

Introduces the most common “final stable syllables” — chunks like -tion, -sion, and -ture that always spell the same ending sound. Read the chunk as one unit: sta-tion, pic-ture.

Raises the syllable count limit from 2 to 3.

Removes the syllable count ceiling entirely. Full multisyllable mastery.