Doorway Online is a collection of free and highly accessible educational games that learners will find easy to use independently. Each activity has a range of accessibility and difficulty options. Originally developed with funding from Scottish Borders Council, it is now managed by the Doorway Accessible Software Trust, a Scottish charity.
literacy
Letter and Number Formation
This activity provides a good model for learners starting to write letters and numbers. Clear animations show the correct starting points and proper strokes. Use the mouse, touch screen or interactive whiteboard to follow or “write over” the letter as it is formed. Letter Formation uses the Jotter Primary font, which appears throughout the Doorway Online activities. Alternative versions of the letters ‘f’ and ‘k’ are available.
First Sounds
Identify the first sounds in words. Users see and hear the word before attempting to pick the starting sound using the keyboard. Pressing the keyboard allows the user to hear the letters and diagraphs. Choose from 56 words, starting with vowels, consonants and the digraphs “ch”, “th” and “sh”.
First Sounds is an activity that help young learners identify and learn the initial sounds of these 56 words. This activity was developed in Flash. It will be subsumed in a new activity called First Phonics.
Here are all the words that this activity contains:
bed, box
cat, cook
dog, door
egg, elephant
foot, fish,
gate, goal
hat, hen
igloo,ill
jam, jug
key, kite
ladder, leg
man, moon
nail, net
octopus, orange
pen, pig
queen, quad,
rat, red
sock, sun,
tap, tent
umbrella, up
violin, van,
web, wool
yellow, yoyo
zebra, zip
shell, ship
chick, chin
thistle, thumb
First Sounds Preview:
First Words
Practise spelling simple words. Choose from 60 words targeted at the Early Level of the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence. Users look at the image and listen to the word being said before spelling, using their keyboard or the on-screen keyboard.
First Blends
Practise spelling short words containing blends, such as ‘br’ and digraphs, such as ‘ai’. There are 60 words to choose from, each with its own image and speech support. On-screen keyboard and scanning options are available.
Practise spelling short words containing blends, such as ‘br’ and digraphs, such as ‘ai’. There are 60 words to choose from, each with its own image and speech support. On-screen keyboard and scanning options are available.
There are many words to choose from, and a teacher or parent can select individual words to be practised by the learner. Each word includes a picture, the spoken sound, and the written spelling (depending on which mode this activity is used in).
It helps students and learners to practise simple words with certain spelling patterns, in the famously clear and simple style of Doorway. Words include: nail, snail, tail, rain, hair, train, road, tie, goal, coin, cue, shark, fork, and more. They are all easy to visualise, and they all demonstrate a particular letter-blending pattern.
Literacy
First Phonics
The new activity First Phonics replaces the three activities developed in Flash: First Sounds, First Blends and First Words. The same words and pictures are included in the exercises, which range from initial sounds, to digraphs and blends, to whole words.
Legacy Flash versions of First Sounds, Blends and Words can be found further down this page.
Letter and Number Formation
This new version of Letter and Number Formation is suited to Interactive White Boards. It lets you choose where on the screen the character is traced. You can watch the animation at varying speeds, trace in the air or on the IWB. It also works with tablets.
Speller 2
Speller has has been renewed to avoid restrictions on Flash. It now has the option to speak words; this can be used to check the word or as a spelling test prompt. It is a complete school, UK English spelling scheme. The sections have been renamed and re-ordered to better fit with the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence. Download printable record sheets.
The activities below were developed in Flash and may not work on all system.
First Blends
Practise spelling short words containing blends, such as ‘br’ and digraphs, such as ‘ai’. There are 60 words to choose from, each with its own image and speech support. On-screen keyboard and scanning options are available.
First Sounds
Identify the first sounds in words. Users see and hear the word before attempting to pick the starting sound using the keyboard. Pressing the keyboard allows the user to hear the letters and diagraphs. Choose from 56 words, starting with vowels, consonants and digraphs.
First Words
Practise spelling simple words. Choose from 60 words targeted at level A of the Scottish 5 – 14 Curriculum. Users look at the image and listen to the word being said before spelling, using their keyboard or the on-screen keyboard.
Doorway Speller
Speller was the original Doorway activity, created at the request of Priorsford Primary School in Peebles to run on their network. It was extremely popular as it covered all levels in the Scottish primary curriculum and beyond.
We do recommend you try the new updated version, Speller 2, however if you would like to continue using the original you can download it using the following link:
Speller has been now been superceded by Speller 2, details below.
Speller 2
Speller 2 features:
- works on any browser on almost any device including iPads and Android devices.
- incorporates synthetic speech to read words out or provide a test.
- has a quick search facility. If you do not know which wordlists the words you want are in, you can search for one and will be shown all the lists it occurs in.
The wordlists in Speller 2 are exactly the same as in the old Speller. You may need to get used to the new arrangement. Be assured the lists are still all there.
Where do Speller’s wordlists lists come from? Originally, Speller took its exercises from a scheme developed by Mrs Isabel Middleton of Howdenburn Primary School, Jedburgh. She devised it when the 5 – 14 Curriculum was being introduced from 1991 onwards. It gave a rational structure and wordlists to match the (then) new levels. The scheme covered Levels A to D in the Curriculum for Excellence.
Curriculum for Excellence. The same wordlists have been reorganised according to the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence. If you have been using original Speller for some time, you may have to take some time to get used to the way the lists have been re-arranged. All the lists remain the same.
The original Speller was developed in Flash. This meant that users had to install a Flash module on their computer or network. This is becomingly increasingly restricted by browsers as well as networks and Chrome browser does not allow this at all. It was causing us problems to maintain it.
Therefore, it has been removed from this site.