How to play
- Tap Tap to start. Sounds can only play after a tap, so nothing makes a noise before then.
- Tap any animal to hear the sound it makes, then its name. Tap another at any time.
Gentle sounds, off to start with, leaves out the lion, the wolf and the elephant, whose sounds can startle small children.
For parents and teachers
Explore is a listening game with no question to answer and no wrong tap. Your child taps an animal, hears the sound it really makes, then hears its name, as often and in any order they like. It’s a gentle first go for the youngest, and a place to come back to before a quiz.
No reading is needed: every animal is a big picture with its name under it. Play together by making the sounds back, guessing which animal a grown-up is thinking of, or finding the animals that live on a farm.
The sounds are real animals, not people imitating them, each cut to a few seconds and evened out so that no sound is much louder than another. With headphones, keep the volume low.
Questions
Why can’t I hear anything?
Tap Tap to start first: browsers don’t allow sound until a tap. Then check the volume. On an iPhone, the silent switch on the side can mute the page in some browsers: flip it, or turn the volume up.
What does Gentle sounds do?
It leaves out the three loudest, deepest sounds, the lion’s roar, the wolf’s howl and the elephant’s trumpet. It’s off to start with, and it’s one setting for every animal game: switch it on if those sounds startle your child.
Where do the sounds come from?
Every recording is a real animal, released into the public domain by the person who made it or made by the US National Park Service. Each one is listed with its source on the credits page.
Is it safe for children?
There are no ads, no chat, no sign-up and no tracking. Nothing your child does is sent anywhere: the setting is kept only in this browser. The animals’ names are said by the device’s own voice, never by an online service.
The animal games
Five games with the same real animal sounds and pictures. The youngest can start with Explore, then Animal Sounds and Animal Names; Read It and Animal Words are for children who are starting to read.
- Explore Animal Sounds (this page): tap any animal to hear its sound and its name. It practises listening, with no question to answer.
- Animal Sounds: hear a sound, tap the animal. It practises listening: knowing an animal by its sound.
- Animal Names: hear a name, tap the animal. It practises vocabulary: the names of animals.
- Animal Sounds: Read It: hear a sound, tap the animal’s written name. It practises listening and reading.
- Animal Words: hear a name, tap the written word. It practises reading: recognizing a word.
Keyboard
| Tab | Move between the animals |
|---|---|
| Enter | Hear that animal |
More to play
- Block Adder: Drop number blocks and make 10. Pairs like 3 and 7 disappear.
- Hangman: Guess the word one letter at a time before the balloons pop.
- Tell the Time: Read the clock and set the hands: o’clock, half past, quarter to and every minute.
- Animal Names: Hear an animal’s name and tap its picture.
- Animal Sounds: Read It: Hear an animal’s sound and tap its written name.
- Animal Words: Hear an animal’s name and tap the word.
- All kids games