Mora Academy · Letters
The Syllable Train
Suggested age: Ages 5 to 7
Look at the picture and load the syllables onto Blu’s train to build the word. All aboard!
Choose the difficulty
For parents and caregivers
How The Syllable Train helps your child develop
Reading starts with discovering that words are made of syllables, like the wagons of a train. This game practices it with pictures and everyday words. Here is how it is played, what it builds and how to keep going at home.
How to play
At the top there is a picture, for example a pencil. Your child taps or drags the syllables in order and they get loaded onto the wagons of Blu’s train: PEN, CIL. If they pick one that doesn’t belong, the train lets them know without any penalty. When the word is complete, the train toots and leaves. In easy the words have two syllables, the first one is already in place and the word is shown written; in medium they have two or three; in hard, three or four and the whole train has to be built. Each game has six words.
What they are learning
Breaking a word into syllables (syllable awareness) is one of the first steps toward reading and writing. By joining syllables in order, your child connects what they hear with what they see written, recognizes chunks that repeat in many words and grows their vocabulary. Choosing between similar syllables also trains attention to each letter.
Ideas to keep going at home
- Say words clapping once for each syllable: but-ter-fly is three claps.
- Write syllables on slips of paper and build words from around the house together: ta-ble, win-dow, pil-low.
- Play at swapping a syllable: change the first part of rab-bit and see what words come out.
A tip from Mora: play together for a short while, 5 to 10 minutes, and talk when you finish. Screens work best as a starting point for family conversations rather than as a solo activity: real learning happens in the conversation, which is the heart of the Mora method.