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
Badger’s Happy Feeling - A story about finding happiness within.
Dog and The Balloon - Dog wants someone to play with - but where can he find a friend?
Little Bear and the Clock - How can you make the clock go faster so that grandma will arrive? Little bear finds out the answer.
Little Lion’s Roar - Little lions can’t roar, but all his animal friends are determined to teach him. How can he learn to do it?
Little Rabbit and the World - Little Rabbit wants to explore the big wide world, but how can she climb high enough to see it?
Little Tiger and the Island - Little Tiger wants to go to the island, but he’s scared of swimming. How can he get there?
FREE BOOKS OF POEMS
Can You Do The Robot? - A poem encouraging children to mimic fun dance movements.
Dum-Diddy Dum - Children read and hum along to this musical poem.
Four Little Seeds - Follow the journeys of four little seeds in this read-out-loud poem.
Imagine if the World was just one Colour - What colour would you choose to paint the world? A poem about colours.
Jitterbug Ball - Join the mini-beasts dance their Jitterbug ball.
Monster Poems - Roger Stevens paints pictures of the village with words. Find out more about the characters who live there, places to go and strange and unusual events in this book of poems.
There’s a Whole World in my Park - A poem about the wonder of nature in the park.
FREE BOOKS ABOUT ARTS AND CRAFTS
Dinosaur Fun - Learn a range of methods for crafting dinosaurs.
How to Make a Star - Learn how to make a folded star out of paper.
I Can Cut and Stick - Use simple materials such as cardboard and old envelopes to cut and stick a truck, a caterpillar, an octopus puppet and lots more ideas.
I Can Draw Animals - Grab your crayons and follow these simple steps to draw a lion, a rabbit, a monkey and lots more animals.
Make Paper Plate Animal Masks - Learn how to make paper plate masks.
Make Your Own Plasticine - Learn how to make your own plasticine and mix colours together.
FREE EDUCATIONAL BOOKS
My First Dinosaur Book - The history of dinosaurs and their many names.
My First Cookbook - A range of recipes designed for children and adults to cook together.
Messy Monster Architecture - Messy, Zoe and Felix learn the best way to build a house.
Messy Monster Coding - Messy, Zoe and Felix find a secret message.
Messy Monster Mammals - Messy, Zoe and Felix learn what it’s like to be a mammal.
My First Book About Food - What is pasta? How is bread made? Where does milk come from? Find out in this book and have fun doing quizzes and puzzles.
My First Book About How Things Grow - How do peanuts grow? Where do seeds come from? Which flowers bloom in the spring? Find out in this book and have fun doing puzzles and quizzes.
The Sun and Moon Rendezvous - Find out what happens when the sun and moon try to meet
THOUGHT-PROVOKING FREE BOOKS
Immi - A beautiful, watercolour-illustrated story about friendship and change.
The Emperor’s New Clothes - The classic story with a moral, focusing on not allowing pride to stop us from speaking up when we know the truth.
FREE BOOKS THAT ENCOURAGE FOCUS AND OBSERVATION
Little Red Riding Hood - The classic tale of Little Red Riding Hood, with a little yellow duck to find on every page.
Night & Day - As the sun sets, many animals are going to sleep, but lots are just beginning to wake up. Go on a journey from dusk to dawn, to see some night-time animals. Then, say good morning to chirping birds and sunbathing lizards.
On the Beach - Beaches and the surrounding sea, from sandy, tropical shores, to those covered in snow and ice, are home to an incredible variety of plants and animals. Explore a rock pool brimming with creatures, find out about hunting penguins, and see how baby turtles hatch from eggs buried under the sand.
Ponds - Ponds are packed full of life. Discover the bugs, birds and other creatures that live in and around ponds, from dragonflies swooping around above the water, to beetles diving deep below.
Robot OK-1 - Observe differences between robots and humans and learn to tell them apart
Seasons - This book takes you on a journey through the seasons, looking at the changing wildlife and landscapes.
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!
Play Teach Your Monster Reading for Fun
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.
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
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.
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
This game, funded by the British Psychological Society, cleverly combines what tends to be children’s most disliked things - mathematics and vegetables - and presents them in an appealing way. Players will choose a character and “feed” vegetables to it throughout the game, through maths-based activities. Their character reacts positively when the child answers maths problems correctly and feeds them their vegetables.
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
This official Sesame Street app features Elmo teaching reception-aged children number identification, subitising, number tracing and more. There is tons to explore with songs and videos, coloring pages and games - all focused around numbers 1-20. Plus, parents can track and see what their kids are learning.
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
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
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
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
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
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
Finding good quality apps or games to help your Reception or Pre-K aged child learn to read is hard - there are just so many. Here, we list the best apps for early years learners to get them started on their reading journey.
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
Following the Homer method - a 4-step process that teaches letter sounds and symbols, then adds those letters into words, words into ideas and then those ideas into knowledge through thinking skills - children are taken on a personalised learning journey, with interactive lessons, activities, stories and more - all adjusted by age, skill level and interests.
Downside: There’s an emphasis on alphabet and phonics but with little attention to comprehension.
Price: Free to try on iOS and Android and then $9.99 per month or $59.99 per year
This app, created by non-profit Teach Your Monster - who are part of the Usborne Foundation - is both designed in collaboration with leading academics and aligned with school curriculums. It is suitable for both home learning and in the classroom, complementing all synthetic phonics programmes. Children create a custom monster and take it on its own reading adventure, meeting other fun characters and winning exciting prizes. The game covers everything from letters and sounds, to reading full sentences, and even offers a tracking tool for parents and teachers to see how learning has progressed.
Downside: Some may find games a little repetitive.
Price: £4.99 on iOS, Amazon and Android. Free on PC and Mac
Created as a follow-up to Teach Your Monster to Read, Reading for Fun is focused on helping children develop a love for reading, rather than only reading to learn. Kids carry out fun chores and challenges and are rewarded with e-books, which include everything from comics to recipes - helping reception-aged children learn a variety of reading. With over 70 books on offer, there’s plenty to explore!
Downside: Some children may be frustrated by the need to complete challenges to win their books
Price: Free on iOS, PC and Mac
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.
Price: Free to try. Subscriptions are $9.99 per month or $79.99 per year
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.
Price: Available for iOS, Android, Amazon, Mac and PC. 1 month: $6.99, 1 year: $39.99, lifetime subscription: $49.99.
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
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
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
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.
However, as we’ve launched new games - Teach Your Monster: Reading for Fun and Teach Your Monster: Number Skills - being known as “Teach Your Monster To Read” made less sense.
So welcome to the world, Teach Your Monster!
A slightly tweaked brand name and a beautiful new, more modern website that allows us to give you access to all of the games that we’ve made - and will make in the future.
Not much has changed really, we’re still the same people with the same passion for children's education - we just have more than one game for you to enjoy now.
Welcome to our new world!
Please take a look around and let us know what you think at [email protected]
Related Links
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.
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!
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!
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
Thank you
The Teach Your Monster team
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
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.
Our app (featuring all 3 extensive games) is free on Apple app store now (Tuesday March 17 2020) and Amazon (from this Thursday) and also laptops and PCs at teachyourmonstertoread.com. It's just £0.99 / $0.99 on Google Play Store*.
It is usually £4.99 / $4.99 and it has no in-app purchases or adverts. It will now be free to download until Monday March 23rd on Apple and Amazon stores. Once downloaded, it's free to continue to use on that device thereafter.
Download links here:
*Due to Google Play Store policy not allowing a new sale to start within 30 days after the completion date of the last sale, we’re unable to give our app away for free on Google Play Store because we just recently ran a free promotion. For this reason we've priced it at £0.99 / $0.99.
(UPDATE: This offer has now ended, although the app may be available at a discounted rate below the standard $4.99 / £4.99 price point)
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.
Our app (featuring all 3 extensive games) is free on Apple app store from Tuesday March 17 2020 and Amazon app store from Thursday March 19. It's also free to play on laptops and PCs at teachyourmonstertoread.com and just £0.99 / $0.99 on Google Play Store*.
It is usually £4.99 / $4.99 and it has no in-app purchases or adverts. The special offers will run until Monday March 23rd. Once downloaded, it's free to continue to use on that device even after the promotion has ended.
Download links here:
*Due to Google Play Store policy not allowing a new sale to start within 30 days after the completion date of the last sale, we’re unable to give our app away for free on Google Play Store because we just recently ran a free promotion. For this reason we've priced it at £0.99 / $0.99.
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
We know that there can be a whole load of background noise in the home or classroom whilst playing, so we've made the words louder and clearer. This follows on from release 3.4 when we made the phonemes easier to hear - which was very well received by parents, teachers and most importantly, children. We believe this is one of the most useful improvements we could make to the app at this time. We're really excited about how much this simple change can help children learn to read whilst playing the game.
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.
Useful links
Download on iOS
Download on Google Play
How to use the game in the classroom
How to get kids playing at home
