Spoken language games

More practice across the years

Year 1: Listen and find

This game checks recognition of six familiar spoken words using picture and word labels. Replay a sound card when you need to hear it again. It offers a small part of listening practice; taking turns in conversation and following another person’s instructions need real interaction. No microphone is used and the game does not record or assess speech.

Play Listen and find

Year 1: Tell it in order

The event cards give a short scaffold for retelling. Think about what must happen before something else can happen, then describe the finished sequence in your own words. The game scores only the prepared event order. A grown-up can listen to the spoken retelling, ask why an event happened and help a child explain their ideas; the website does not judge their speech.

Play Tell it in order

Year 1: Rhyme partners

Rhyming words share an ending sound, rather than simply starting with the same letter. Tap either word to hear an approved whole-word recording, and say each pair aloud if you wish. Children can then invent another rhyming word or a playful nonsense word. This game practises matching rhyme; rhythm, expression and performing a poem are explored with a grown-up away from the screen.

Play Rhyme partners

Year 2: Message mission

This game practises attending to the order, location and reason in a short spoken message. Listening again is a useful strategy. A text alternative is available for access or shared reading. Real conversations also involve asking for clarification and noticing another person’s response; practise those parts together after the game.

Play Message mission

Year 2: Because builder

Explaining a reason helps a listener understand how ideas connect. The prepared pairs use clear everyday causes, and the score checks only those matches. Ask a child to explain one match and invent another sensible reason afterwards. The website does not record or judge speech; a grown-up can listen, ask a follow-up question and help the explanation become clearer.

Play Because builder

Year 2: Poetry voices

These short original lines use explicit directions so each matching task has a clear answer. Children then try the direction aloud, thinking about volume, pace, repetition and the listener. The game does not decide the only correct way to interpret a poem or score a performance. Explore different choices together after matching.

Play Poetry voices

Year 3: Listen for the condition

Year 3 listening practice adds conditions and details that can change an action. A message might distinguish seedlings from empty pots or ask the listener to wait for music to stop. Hearing only a familiar noun can lead to the wrong response. The six saved messages give children time to attend, replay and match a response that preserves the important condition. In the greenhouse instruction, moving every pot into the cupboard would miss the contrast between living seedlings and empty containers. Ask which words show that the two groups need different treatment. Give a similar real instruction using different classroom objects, and invite the listener to explain it back before acting so any uncertainty can be clarified.

Play Listen for the condition

Year 3: Evidence bridges

Year 3 explanations should make the link between an observation and an idea clear. Evidence bridges pairs a concrete clue with a reasonable explanation, while keeping uncertainty where the text does not prove a feeling or cause. Jo checking the clock may suggest anxiety; it does not establish a fact about Jo’s thoughts. Useful explanations show both the connection and its limits. Choose the plant example and explain why dry soil and drooping leaves support checking whether it needs water. Then ask what extra observation might help: recently watered soil or damaged roots could change the explanation. Encourage words such as because, may and suggests when they make the reasoning more accurate, rather than adding them to every sentence automatically.

Play Evidence bridges

Year 3: Poetry patterns

Year 3 poetry practice introduces explicit patterns that children can recognise and explore aloud. Poetry patterns uses diagnostic descriptions with brief original examples, distinguishing repeated whole words from several different words beginning with the same sound. A real line can contain more than one feature; the label in this game follows the particular feature described on its card. Say silver sleepy snakes slowly and notice the repeated starting sound across different words. Then say Run, run, run! and notice the repeated whole word. Try both examples with different emphasis. Discuss what the pattern contributes to the listener’s experience rather than treating identification of a technical name as the end of reading the poem.

Play Poetry patterns

Year 4: Hear the distinction

Year 4 listening practice asks children to preserve distinctions within a longer message. A speaker may contrast finished models with unfinished ones or separate an observation from an unproven explanation. The six saved messages contain details that matter to the response. Children can replay them without pressure, then identify the particular words that rule out a tempting but inaccurate summary. Discuss the wet-path message. A wet surface is observed, while a leaking pipe is only one possible explanation. A response that announces a confirmed leak goes beyond what the speaker said. Ask the child to summarise both what is known and what still needs checking, then practise the same distinction in a real classroom explanation.

Play Hear the distinction

Year 4: Question workshop

Year 4 discussion involves asking relevant questions that clarify or extend another person’s contribution. Question workshop gives a specific gap in each situation: an unexplained word, conflicting dates, missing evidence or an omitted first step. The task is to select a question that addresses that gap instead of changing the subject or asking something the speaker has already answered. If a group says its investigation was fair, ask which conditions stayed the same rather than asking only whether the group enjoyed it. Both questions could be part of a conversation, but the first develops the claim about fairness. Role-play the exchange and answer the question with a specific example, allowing the questioner to ask for further clarification if necessary.

Play Question workshop

Year 4: Poetry map

Year 4 poetry exploration includes noticing how a poem is organised and how its language creates an experience for the listener. Poetry map introduces useful terms for structure, voice, imagery, rhythm, stanza and refrain. These are tools for discussion rather than a checklist that every poem must satisfy. A poem’s speaker is a voice within the poem and should not automatically be treated as the real author. Choose a familiar poem with a repeated line and decide how the refrain connects its sections. Read one stanza aloud, keeping a steady sense of its rhythm without forcing every line into the same pattern. Discuss an image that was easy to imagine and explain which words created it, then try a performance choice that makes those words clearer.

Play Poetry map

Year 5: Viewpoint listener

Year 5 listening practice asks children to retain a main point together with a qualification or another viewpoint. A message may report increased library use while refusing to claim a single proven cause. Viewpoint listener uses six saved messages that reward accurate summaries rather than a response based on one striking phrase. Replaying supports attention to words that limit or balance a claim. Discuss why more visits after later opening do not by themselves prove that the changed opening time caused every additional visit. The speaker explicitly asks the listener to retain that limitation. In a real discussion, practise repeating the point fairly before agreeing or challenging it. The aim is to understand what was said before deciding what you think about it.

Play Viewpoint listener

Year 5: Claims and support

Year 5 explanations and discussions should distinguish a claim from evidence that supports it. Claims and support pairs a specific statement with a direct observation, recorded result or detail in a supplied text. The examples do not establish universal rules: four groups succeeding with revised instructions support a claim about that group and task, rather than proving that nobody could ever find the instructions confusing. For the library example, explain that recorded visits increasing from twenty to thirty-five support greater use during the trial. They do not automatically establish why the increase happened. Ask what other information would be needed to discuss a cause. Encourage precise wording about what a result shows, what it suggests and what still needs checking.

Play Claims and support

Year 5: Figurative lens

Year 5 readers discuss how figurative language and other choices can affect a reader or listener. Figurative lens uses explicit descriptions to focus each match on a particular feature. Real poetry can combine several devices in one line, so the diagnostic description matters. Recognising a metaphor or hyperbole is useful when it leads to an explanation of the image or effect created. Read The classroom was a hive and explain the comparison without claiming the room literally became a beehive. A busy, active atmosphere is a possible effect, depending on the context. Compare it with a simile using like, then try reading a line with emphasis that makes the intended image clear. Discuss the choice instead of treating a label alone as a complete interpretation.

Play Figurative lens

Year 6: Nuance navigator

Year 6 listening practice preserves scope, uncertainty and essential conditions when summarising another person. Nuance navigator contrasts most with every, may with definitely and an observed sequence with an established cause. These words can change a claim substantially. The six saved messages provide time to listen again and select a response that represents what the speaker actually said before evaluating the idea. In the noise-and-power message, one event follows another, but the speaker explicitly avoids claiming that the first caused the second. A summary that reports a proven cause would change the meaning. Ask which words limit the claim and how that limitation should appear in a shorter response. Practise the same care when reporting a partner’s view in a discussion.

Play Nuance navigator

Year 6: Balanced replies

Year 6 discussion involves representing another viewpoint fairly, considering evidence and developing or revising a response. Balanced replies asks what a useful next contribution would do in a specific situation. Respectful challenge can identify missing evidence without misrepresenting the claim. Acknowledging a proposal’s benefit also does not require ignoring a practical concern, such as whether everyone can still use a path. For the incomplete-survey situation, recognise the support reported while asking whose views are absent. Neither dismissing every response nor treating the survey as complete would represent the evidence carefully. Role-play a reply and invite a partner to check that the original view was stated fairly. Revise your own explanation when a relevant new detail genuinely changes what the evidence supports.

Play Balanced replies

Year 6: Performance director

Year 6 performance choices can make nuances and relationships clearer for an audience. Performance director links explicit directions to their intended effects, such as emphasising might to preserve uncertainty or distinguishing quoted speakers with different voices. The matches do not establish the only valid interpretation of an unfamiliar poem. They prepare children to explain and try a purposeful choice in a specific line. Read The gate was not open yet twice, first stressing not and then stressing yet. Discuss how the second choice can suggest a future change, while the first draws attention to the present restriction. Try a short passage with a partner and ask whether the intended idea became clearer. Keep technical explanation connected to what the listener actually hears.

Play Performance director