Reading level 4: what it looks like and what to practise

What a level 4 story reads like

This is the start of Water Uphill, one of Peabody's own stories at level 4 (measured reading ease 3.8). The whole story is free to read, with no account.

Wren had grown the pumpkin from one flat white seed, and she had grown it herself. She planted it in May at the bottom of Grandpa's garden. By August it was the size of a soccer ball, deep orange, and still growing. It was the only pumpkin on the vine.

The story teaches 5 words, each with a kid-sized meaning. A few: siphon (up-and-over tube), barrel (big round tub), slope (a slanting hill) and rim (the top edge).

Compared with level 3: the longest sentence goes from 26 to 32 words, a screen goes from 40–65 words to 55–85, and the share of words allowed off the familiar-word list goes from 9% to 11%.

What Peabody practises at level 4

At this level the practice brain works on vocabulary and spelling. The skills it holds, in the order it teaches them:

A word a child gets right is done for good and is not asked again, so practice moves on rather than looping. The sight-word lists are pre-primer (40), primer (52), first grade (41), second grade (46) and third grade (41). The full phonics scope and sequence is a free guide.

Free games that practise these skills

Every game below asks questions from the same practice brain, as three big boxes to tap, with no typing. They start from a child's grade, not their reading level, so a game's questions fit the grade they pick.

Two word games sit outside the learning list: Word Rescue (catch falling letters to spell words from your story) and Word Blocks (hop on the word you hear).

The arcade also has two action games with cartoon violence, Sniper and Doomcrawl. We leave them off these lists on purpose; every game is on the games page.

Free stories at level 4

The 22 open stories at level 4 include 18 retold classics and 5 spooky ones, marked as such. Their themes include fairy tale, courage, kindness, funny, adventure and greed.

• The Time Machine
• Rumpelstiltskin
• Mowgli of the Jungle
• Treasure Island
• Cinderella
• The Frog Prince

All level 4 stories are free to read without an account. Each ends with questions of a few kinds: inference, literal and word-in-context.

Other levels

Level 3 · Level 5 · all levels and grades · the reading levels cheat sheet

Questions parents ask

Which children start at level 4?

Peabody starts a child one level under the grade they say they are in, so the first stories are easy: 5th grade readers start at level 4. The level moves up when books run easy.

How is level 4 measured?

From the text, never from the child. The limits are a longest sentence of 32 words, 55 to 85 words a screen, a Flesch–Kincaid score of 3.5 to 4.5 and at most 11% of words off the Dale–Chall list.

Is it free?

Yes, free through the end of 2026, with no sign-up. Peabody is a reading app, not an assessment: it cannot hear a child read, so a teacher is the one to ask about fluency.