Phonics Playground is an interactive phonics program designed to help emergent and transitional readers build confidence through scaffolded, engaging activities. Children explore themed learning zones on our interactive map, each focusing on specific phonics skills from basic CVC words to complex vowel patterns.

All 9 zones are now open and ready to explore — from Bug Trail's CVC Words all the way through to Rainbow Vowel Valley!

Each zone includes interactive online activities. Our shop is also coming soon, where you'll be able to purchase complete collections including PDFs and assessment materials.

Phonics Playground is perfect for:

• Emergent Readers (PreK–Grade 2): Children who recognize letters and are ready to start decoding words
• Transitional Readers (Grade 1–3): Students who have mastered basic patterns and are ready for complex phonics
• Struggling Readers: Older students who need to build a strong phonics foundation
• ELL Students: English language learners building phonics skills

Our interactive eBooks include:

• Audio support on every page for correct pronunciation
• Visual learning with pictures paired with words
• Multiple modes: Flipbook mode (pictures with words) and Flashcard mode (words first for decoding practice)
• Scaffolded progression from individual word patterns to mixed practice

Children can work independently or with guidance, and the audio support means they can practice on their own.

All you need is a device with internet access — computer, tablet, or smartphone. The interactive activities work in any modern web browser. For classroom use, they work great on SMART Boards!

We're still finalizing our pricing structure as we launch. Sign up for a free account to get early access to Bug Trail and be notified when new zones become available. For our complete collection of phonics eBooks and materials, visit shala-books.com.

Most children will start with Bug Trail (CVC words), our foundational zone. If your child has already mastered CVC words, you can jump ahead to a more advanced zone. Check out our Approach page for detailed guidance on the progression through all zones.

All 9 zones are live! Here's what we're working on next:

• Subscription plans for full platform access
• PDF and assessment downloads via My Library
• Teacher Mode for classroom management
• Parent accounts for home learning

Contact us to stay in the loop on new features!

When you sign in to your free account, you can track books completed! As students read through the activities, they can mark books as complete and see their progress grow. This helps celebrate achievements and keeps young readers motivated. Look for the progress badge in the navigation bar to view completed books!

We're here to help! Contact us with any questions about Phonics Playground, technical support, or how to get the most out of our program. We typically respond within 1–2 business days.

The Phonics Book Maker is an AI-powered tool that lets teachers create custom decodable storybooks in minutes. You choose sentence starters and phonics levels, AI fills in the words, and you download a ready-to-use flipbook or PDF — with optional illustrations and audio narration.

There are four book formats to choose from:

• Read Along: AI illustrations paired with decodable text — students follow along as a class or independently
• Read & Draw: Students read the text, then illustrate each page themselves on-screen
• Look & Write: Writing lines for students to copy or complete words, with optional illustration
• Write & Draw: A blank book students write and illustrate themselves — great for creative response or free writing

You choose sentence starters from the Starter Bank — patterns like It is a __. or I see a __. — and select how many words fill each blank (one or two). AI then draws from your chosen phonics level(s) to fill each blank with decodable words, keeping the whole book within the pattern you've targeted.

Yes! Once the book is generated you can view the full text in the Story Text panel and edit any page directly before downloading. You can also regenerate individual illustrations if you'd like a different image for a specific page.

Once the book is generated, teachers and parents can use it in several ways:

• Project it on a SMART Board for whole-class shared reading
• Download the interactive flipbook to open on any device during a lesson
• Print it as a landscape spread for small group or take-home reading
• Enable audio narration so little ones can listen and follow along while you circulate

For Read Along and Look & Write books, you have three ways to illustrate each page:

• AI Illustrations: AI generates a unique image for each page based on the text. Images are created automatically when you generate the book — you can regenerate any individual image if you'd like a different one.
• Upload Your Own Images: Add your own photos or drawings to each page. Great if you want to use real classroom photos, clip art, or images that match a specific theme you're teaching.
• Student Drawing (Read & Draw): The right side of each page is left as a blank canvas. Students draw their own illustration directly on-screen using the built-in drawing tools — colours, brush sizes, and an eraser. Perfect for projecting on a SMART Board and drawing together as a class.

Write & Draw books always use a drawing canvas on the right — students write their own text on the left and illustrate on the right, so illustration style isn't a separate choice for that format.

Yes! Two book types include interactive writing directly in the flipbook:

Look & Write includes handwriting lines on every page. Teachers can model writing during a SMART Board lesson, or students can write on their own device with a mouse, stylus, or finger. You control how much of the sentence is shown as a model:

• Full sentence: The complete text is displayed for students to copy
• Missing word(s): Most of the sentence is shown and students fill in the phonics word(s)
• Blank lines only: No text shown — students write the whole sentence from memory or dictation

Write & Draw gives students a fully blank book — they write their own title and author name on the cover, then write and illustrate each page themselves. Great for creative response or free writing after a reading lesson.

When you save either book as an HTML file, any writing is saved inside it — so a modelled lesson can be reopened exactly as you left it.

Once your book is generated, you'll see export buttons below the flipbook viewer. There are two formats:

• Save Flipbook (HTML): Downloads a single self-contained HTML file to your device. Open it in any web browser — no internet needed — to get the full interactive experience with page-turning, audio, and drawing tools. Great for projecting in class or sharing digitally. Just keep the file somewhere you can find it!
• Print / Save PDF: Opens a print-ready version of the book laid out as landscape spreads. From there you can print physical copies or use your browser's "Save as PDF" option (usually in the print dialog) to save a PDF file.

Both options work on any device. The HTML flipbook is the best experience for reading aloud together — the PDF is handy for printing take-home copies.

Yes! The downloaded HTML file is completely standalone. Just double-click it to open it in your browser, or drag it into a browser window — no internet connection required. It will look and work exactly as it did when you saved it. You can keep it in a folder on your computer, a USB drive, or upload it to Google Drive to open from anywhere.

You'll need to be signed in to generate books, as the tool uses AI credits. Sign up for a free account to get started — contact us if you have questions about access or classroom plans.