Science of Reading · Free · 12,000+ words
Sound boxes for
every English word
Look up any word and see exactly how to break it into sounds — the way US schools teach reading.
Covers 12,000+ common English words
See the best phonics apps for kids →How it works
- 1 Look up a word. Search any of 12,000+ common English words.
- 2 See the sound boxes. Each box shows one sound unit (grapheme), not one letter.
- 3 Say it aloud with your child. Point to each box, say the sound, then blend them together.
This technique — Elkonin boxes — is used in thousands of US classrooms. It follows the Science of Reading, the research-backed approach now adopted by most US states.
What is phonics — and why does it matter?
Phonics is the method of teaching children to read by connecting letters and letter combinations to the sounds they make. Instead of memorising whole words by sight, a child who knows phonics can decode any word they encounter — even one they've never seen before.
The Science of Reading — a body of research spanning 50 years and hundreds of studies — is unambiguous: systematic phonics instruction is the single most effective way to teach a child to read. Most US states have now updated their literacy standards to reflect this, moving away from "whole language" methods toward explicit, structured phonics.
What are phonics sounds?
English has 26 letters but approximately 44 distinct sounds (phonemes). Many sounds are spelled with two or more letters working together — like the sh in "ship," the igh in "night," or the ough in "caught." Phonics teaches children to recognise these patterns so they can read words by sounding them out, not guessing.
What are Elkonin sound boxes?
Elkonin boxes (also called sound boxes or phoneme boxes) are a visual tool used in kindergarten and first-grade classrooms across the US. Each box represents one phoneme — one distinct sound — in a word. A child taps or slides a counter into each box as they say each sound, then blends them to read the full word. Research shows this concrete, multisensory approach significantly accelerates phonemic awareness in early readers.
Phonics for kids: where to start
Start with the most common single-letter sounds (consonants and short vowels), then move to consonant blends, digraphs, and finally vowel teams and silent-letter patterns. The 12,000-word library on this site covers every stage — from simple CVC words like cat and dog to complex patterns like caught and elephant.