Building on the success of Sound Stories, Sound Activities captures beginning readers' attention with more fun spelling and listening activities. The friendly spider from Sound Stories is back to cheer, "Well done!" as children complete four focused activities designed to support the following important literacy skills: sound identification, letter recognition, listening skills,  phonological awareness (particularly of initial sounds), knowledge of sound/symbol correspondence, segmenting and blending, and alphabet knowledge.

Children will be all ears for Sound Activities' two listening games. In The Balloon Game, users identify pictures that begin with the same sound by clicking on balloons. Once the correct balloons have been selected, the others pop and the chosen three are displayed with the letter or digraph that represents the targeted sound.

In The Posting Game, children mail picture postcards to the door showing the correct initial letter or digraph sound. As with all the activities in the program, this one ends with the spider reviewing and reinforcing the letters covered.

The Rockets Game takes children to outer space to practice their spelling skills. By clicking on the rocket that holds the correct letter, students complete words representing pictures shown on a planet. Fantastic sound effects accompany the rockets as they take off and land on the planet to deliver the missing letter. Children get more practice spelling words in The T-Shirt Game as they again select the correct initial letters and digraphs to complete labels for pictures. All four of these fun activities are ideal for individual or small group use.

Key features include:

" Parent or teacher option to select letters and digraphs used in each activity

" Review and reinforcement at the end of each activity

" Record keeping facility to track student progress (printable)

" Repeat audio button always on-screen