Read and Do

What Read and Do practices

Read and Do checks reading for meaning. Your child reads one short printed sentence, such as “The cat sat on the log.”, then makes it true on the stage by dragging the right animal to the right place.

The stage has two possible movers and three places, none of them labeled, so only reading the whole sentence gives the answer. Sentences use frames like “sat on”, “ran to”, “hid in” and “is on”, with animals such as a dog, pig, fox or duck and places such as a bed, box, nest, tent or van.

Who it suits

Readers who can decode short words and are starting on sentences, usually around ages six and seven. It opens in the Word Builder level of the journey and suits any child who reads the words but needs to slow down for the meaning.

How a round goes

The sentence is not read aloud first, so your child does the reading. A wrong move wiggles with “Try again”, and the speaker becomes available to read the line. A second miss brings an arrow and the prompt “Read it again. Where does it go?”

A right move pops into place and the buddy reads the line back. One sentence per round, about half a minute each, so five rounds fit in a few minutes.

A tip for home

Write tiny instructions on scraps of paper, like “Hop to the door” or “Put the cup on the mat”, and let your child read and do them. Swap roles so they write one for you. Reading that makes something happen feels powerful.

Try next

• Story Time — reads a whole little story, page by page, then answers a question.
• Read the Line — reads a sentence out loud from start to finish.
• Silly or Right? — a quick word-level check for reading every letter.
• Heart Words — tricky words like said and was, which sentences use all the time.

Read more

Why children guess at words: why reading every word, rather than guessing from context, pays off in sentences too.